Part 15 People Watching
Is it just me or do other people like to spend time just people watching?
While I am waiting for someone, either sitting in the car or on a bench in a shopping mall, I am always fascinated by the attitudes of people passing by. Someone who is shopping for fun, either window shopping or maybe looking for new clothes, looks relaxed and confident. The person going to an appointment or grocery shopping, usually looks a little tense, maybe clutching a purse and looks straight ahead, to the one place she, or he, is heading.
I find that people have a different attitude in a big city, as compared to a small town. If I say hello to a person in a small town, chances are that we will end up having a conversation and they will give me a short life history. Try this in a city and the result is usually a grunt or a very quick hello. People in cities tend not to make eye contact but, walk down any street in a village, and almost everyone will not only look at you but smile and greet you.
This may be due to the need to drive through heavy traffic and have to search for parking, conditions that do not apply in small towns. Whatever the reason, there is a definite difference in attitudes.
Recently, we went on a camping holiday to Powell River. One of our grandsons moved there last year and has recently bought a home. It was time for us to visit him, his wife and young son. His mom and dad plus Dave and myself, set off in our motor homes, to catch the series of ferries up the sunshine coast.
The rides up the coast are really lovely and a beautiful, if costly, way to go but, at 7.00am I was more interested in lining up for coffee, before settling down to admire the view.
People on the ferry seem to fall into two categories, tourists or people just riding the ferry for pleasure, admiring the magnificent view and enjoying relaxing with a coffee and their companions. Compare their attitude to business people who seem to be concerned only with their own thoughts and never take a moment to enjoy the view. Their eyes are glued to a smart phone or a tablet and their body language is tense.
We had reserved sites at a campground, right on the beach. The sites had electricity but the plug in areas were really poorly designed. Instead of each site having a power post or being shared by two sites, the power was to serve four or five sites. This resulted in extension cords being stretched across several sites providing tripping hazards. This was inconvenient and probably illegal but, because everyone was relaxed and rather laid back, the attitude was “Oh well, we are here for a good time, let’s make the most of it.” Instead of complaints, people just made fun of the odd set up.
Being after labour day, the majority of the guests were seniors, some with young grandchildren, but mainly oldies with dogs. Watching different people’s attitudes to camping was quite entertaining.
My family is very casual, fairly tidy but certainly not neat freaks. We kept all extra gear packed away but had chairs, camp stove and an extra table, left on the site all the time. The extra table houses the coffee pot, a small toaster oven and coffee cups. Let’s get our priorities right, I do not perform well if the coffee is not free flowing for several hours each morning, so has to be very accessible.
When we go camping, we like to live outside and do all our activities outdoors. However, my days of crawling into tents and struggling out of sleeping bags every morning are now a thing of the past. We have a small motor home that has everything we require but we just use it for sleeping. As long as the weather is agreeable, we live outside.
Being outdoors not only feels like camping but it gives me an opportunity to watch everyone else’s approach to outdoor living.
Across from us is a small, pop-up camper with two seniors and a big, white dog. They arrive, look over their site and, obviously pleased with the location, proceed to bring out the dog bed, which is immediately occupied by their pet. The couple are both extreme fusspots and make me tired just to watch them. Parking their small unit took most of the morning. The sites were quite level but, for some reason or other, they couldn’t find the “perfect” spot. The small van was moved from one side to the other, back to front and every way possible, before they settled on a spot. They also have a small car and this also has to be moved, with every relocation of the van. Every time he moves the van, his wife moves the dog bed to it’s new spot and the old dog settles down. By the forth or fifth move the dog and wife were both getting a bit fed up of the procedure.
When it finally looked like perfection had been achieved, the wife brought out a bucket of cleaning supplies and a thorough disinfecting routine of picnic table and benches was completed. This was followed by the car, and van both being vacuumed. My daughter and I, who had been entertained by the whole procedure, looked around our rather “homey” spots and, as neither of us had brought a vacuum cleaner, decided we didn’t really care. We were on vacation and the grass and gravel site was just fine the way it was.
Next spot to the fussy couple was a big fifth wheel surrounded by big boy toys. A very classy barbecue, large carpet on which all their outdoor equipment was sitting, and all the latest luxuries of camping. The husband had several small sorts of watercraft and a wet suit. When he wasn’t sailboarding, he was playing with his various toys which included a drone. This, of course, brought every other guy on the campground round, like kids to a candy store. Can they smell new toys from a couple of hundred yards away?
On the other side of the fussy couple was a tent trailer with two younger people. Things were fine until about 8.30pm, by which time the woman was rather drunk. She got louder as the evening progressed, when she proceeded to be verbally abusive to her partner, who left the trailer and walked away. We then got a front row seat of a spectacular show which was mainly made up of four letter words and threats to kill him.
Most other occupants of the campsite were quietly enjoying sitting outside, in various groups, chatting but the chatter all stopped as all attention was directed to the performance of the drunken woman. Next morning she was wearing dark glasses and was very subdued. She sat to one side while her partner took down the tent trailer and packed up. From then on it was back to peace and quiet.
I love people watching, it is so much fun making up scenarios for where everyone is going or what they are thinking. However, I wonder what people think about me. It is probably a good thing that I can’t read minds.
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For the people who have given feed back to my stories on Oliver Daily News, thankyou for all your support. My stories are just a look at daily life, as I see it, I have really enjoyed putting my thoughts into print and am so glad that other people have appreciated what I have to say. Hugs to you all. Pat
More from Pat on her return from holidays