People watching was fun on July 4^th

I had more fun watching people last Saturday than I have had in a long time. I enjoy watching people from time to time so it is not a new experience for me. But this year I really looked around to see who was fun to watch.

It was a no contest watching kids react to the Amran Shrine Clowns, every little one I watched reacted with laughter and smiles. The clowns are from Raleigh and even have their own web site, www.amranclowns.org. If you followed them around you saw two things the smiles and laughs from the kids, and just as noticeable are the smiles from the adults.

I got quite a different reaction when I tried to take pictures of kids, some smiled, many had to be told to smile. Then some of them could not stop smiling and want their picture taken over and over. One little girl that I had to coax into a smile was Eva Winter from California. She was with her brother Otto. Eva was in town for the Lakeland Summer Camp so I thought a smile would come easy for her, but it didn’t.

When I ran into a little boy dressed up for the 4th and carrying a flag he was all smiles. Then he pointed to me in my wheelchair asked is that all you in the chair (for those of you who have never met me I am extremely obese). I said yes, but I really felt that the mother should have taken that opportunity to give the little one a lesson on why he shouldn’t have asked the question. Fortunately that was the only negative thing all day.

While at the Littleton United Methodist Church pancake breakfast I ran into Jessica Matte from Chile and her two friends Bob Thomson and Joe Dauray of Rhode Island. They were very friendly and fun to talk to. I didn’t realize until the parade started that Jessica was putting on a show of her own. She acted more like a kid than the adult she is, but it was fun to watch an adult chasing for the candy, waving the American Flag and dancing all over the place.  I told her afterwards that I wish I had another camera to I could have put the show on YouTube.

One person I always watch at the parade is Al Prescott. Al is dressed as a clown and rides a bike pulling a little cart that advertises the Lake Gaston World Famous Clown Corps. Sadly, Al told me this will probably be his last year. He is 81 years and doesn’t think he will be doing it any longer.  He still managed to add a lot of smiles to many kids faces. 

We then headed over to the boat parade. We sat next to the fire truck that sprayed an arc over the water for the boats to go under. I was taking the pictures before the boats went under and as they started to go under, and my spouse was taking pictures as they were under.

It was a loud, fun parade. Everyone we saw on the boats was all excited about the 4th. They waved their flags and wished everyone on the shore a happy 4th of July. The reaction to the cameras was fun. Once they saw I had a camcorder they acted just like we did as kids for the family 8 mm movies in the fifties and sixties. Dancing around and waving and trying to get my attention.

Watching them go under the spray was more fun than I thought it would be. Kids generally liked it and wanted to do it again. Adults reacted differently. Most of them tried to cover their heads with their hands or whatever was handy, Some boats slowed down for the spray, others sped up to limit the time they would be under the water. Several boats just made a wide arc around the spray so they wouldn’t get wet. I thought if you don’t like getting wet what are doing in the water. 

Our last stop on Saturday was the Food Lion. This is where the idea for this article came to me. I prefer staying in the car when my wife is in the store – we always have a dispute over how much bad food I can buy and how goofy I am in the store trying to bring smiles to peoples faces. I am always amazed at how people walk through there like they are walking to the electric chair. It is not often that you see a smile or someone laugh in the store. When they meet a friend they might, but for some that seems to be nothing more than a distraction from the serious business of buying food.

While I sat in the car I was thinking why do so many people need to take time from their July 4 holiday to go to the store. The parking lot was packed. Of course, we were two of those people and it was my spouses’ second trip to a grocery that day. To be honest it was all my fault - this time it’s true. I changed my mind on what we would have dinner after watching the two parades and asked my wife if we could have an old fashion July 4 cookout with burgers and potato salad and a desert with cool whip on it. I even wanted the regular hamburger buns, for months now I have been having my burgers on really flat wheat rolls. They are just thick enough to be able to hold the burger. She didn’t have much of what I wanted in the house so she graciously went to the store.

Food Lion was, as they say, a zoo. There was plenty to see, from the way people dressed, to how slow or fast they walked and whether or not someone was tagging behind them or they were leading someone. It is also interesting to notice how long it takes some people. They would go into the store at relatively the same time, but sometimes they would come out at what seemed like hours apart.

It made no difference how many items they were buying. More often than not a person with one or two items would take longer than one with several items. Also people alone seemed to take very little time. People with kids seemed to have taken up residence in the store.

You can always tell the real party people, they come out with beer in their hands. One man had two 24 packs of Bud – now that must have led to a great party. After all this was five in the afternoon and he had enough beer for the weekend.

How women were clothed was interesting. Unlike most of the men who seemed to have just thrown anything on, most of the women were the opposite.  Some of them did nothing more than put on terry cloth outfit over their bathing suit.  I wondered if they did that because most women’s bathing suits are very small and cost more than my mortgage and they wanted to get the most wear out of it that they could.

Other women had on very casual clothes and some dressed like they were going to a formal dinner. Almost all of them appeared to be focused on getting in and out of the store as quickly as possible.

All in all I had a great day on the 4th.