The City That Breeds » Entertainment » Who is – CARDBOARD GUY?

Who is – CARDBOARD GUY?

May 28th, 2009 | 8 Comments

Downtown Baltimore features a lot of people that you and I might refer to as “batshit crazy.” Back in the long long ago, the before time, I spent a few summers working on the Water Taxi where I became familiar with several of the inner harbor’s more special characters: Crazy Bob, who was undoubtedly schizophrenic and would yell into trash cans with great frequency, the “Punching Nun” guy, who would sit for hoooooours every day in Fells Point with a little punching nun toy, punching the air and panhandling forever and ever (sadly I have it on good authority that both of these folks have passed on, shine on you crazy diamonds).

But I digress. Currently, my favorite dude who hangs out around the city and seemingly does nothing is “Cardboard Guy.” He stands most frequently around the intersection of Pratt and St. Paul (Light), close to Water St. and sets up his wide array of cardboard …and just arranges it. Normally he sings while doing so. A friend caught this picture of him in the rain, protecting his cardboard with some plastic. I was pretty excited to finally get my hands on this picture, as every single time I pass Cardboard Guy I miss the chance to photograph him… until a week or two ago. carboard-guy

cardboard-guy-againI was biking down Maryland Avenue, headed home when I spotted him in Mount Vernon. “CARDBOARD GUY.” I said to myself, nearly peeing at this new opportunity to observe Cardboard Guy without being in a car moving at high velocity. I had actually seen him a day or two before, standing around a bus stop on Baltimore St., stabbing a piece of cardboard with a screwdriver – a point at which I didn’t really feel like observing him much. Anyway there I was, trying to cross the street on my bike when CG just kind of walks right into me. “Scuse me.” I said, and scooted my bike up onto the sidewalk. Time to get a photo.

Bear in mind, we’re literally the only people for a block or two on Maryland Avenue, and here I am snapping a shot of CG when he stops right in the middle of this intersection and looks at me and says “What, you want me to SMILE?? You takin’ pictures ain’t ya?” I suppose I should have just said “Hell yeah man! Let’s take a picture together!” …but instead I said something to the effect of “Oh nonono, I’m texting a friend. We’re meeting up.” *bikes off speedily* How embarrassing – God that was a bitch move.

And there he goes, him and his cardboard. I like Cardboard Guy. Hopefully in due time I’ll get his name, his story, whatever. Anybody out there know anything about him?

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  • http://www.baltimoresun.com/midnightsun Sam Sessa

    I have often wondered the exact same thing. He is obviously whacked. One time I saw cardboard guy with his shirt off doing push-ups on the sidewalk. He is RIPPED. I’m talking six-pack abs, etc. But then again, why wouldn’t he have six-pack abs? He is Cardboard Guy, after all.

    • http://citythatbreeds.com Evan

      Oh that’s right he is!! I often see him in other weird outfits like suspenders without a shirt and stuff like that. He’s definitely jacked – it’s probably a good thing I took off like that or I may have been his next cardboard arrangement

  • http://www.baltimoresun.com/midnightsun Sam Sessa

    It’s like a scene from Soylent Green:

    The cardboard is made of people! PEOPLE!

    • http://citythatbreeds.com Evan

      bwahahaha

  • Aaron

    I work downtown, and will concur that he is ripped and has a great haircut as well. He also has an arrangement with the Walgreen’s on Fayette and St. Paul to sweep and “keep an eye on things” sometimes. He puts holly in his cart around the holidays. I’m really curious about his story, because he seems to have such a “regular” irregular life, unlike a lot of the down-and-out folks in that area. I assume that like a lot of them, he has substance abuse/mental health issues, but I also get the sense that he’s more with it and would probably do really well with some regular medical and mental health attention.

    • http://citythatbreeds.com Evan

      Ah. That explains why I always see him by Water St. then, awesome.

  • Paul Capestany

    So, I walk by where he sleeps all the time, he uses all that cardboard to make a pretty nice little shack for himself every night.

    I don’t understand how he is so jacked, and definitely don’t understand the shrubbery that he sometimes seems to carry around though.

    Definitely an interesting character.

  • SonOfBoxMan

    its box man!