People Watching… Part 1

Last night, I took the doggie out for a walk. We ended up on the main road here in town where there is a bit of commerce in the form of restaurants and small shops. At this time of night, namely after 11 p.m., most things are closed. There is an all night chain pharmacy and a pizzeria, which are not near each other, and then down the street in either direction, there are a series of pubs, which I imagine are known for their beer selections. None the less it is generally quiet around this time.

However, consistently, every time I am in that area around that time, there are a few packs of obviously intoxicated people, trekking their way back to wherever it is they are going, from wherever it is that had just come from. This night was no exception, except the humorous packs this time were in most cases, individuals.

The doggie and I found a bench which is nestled between a bank and that pharmacy. It is under a tree and it was breezy last night, so it was perfect for just chillin. After about two minutes, this amazingly skinny, middle-aged white man comes stumbling down the street. At first I thought there was something physically challenged about him with the way he was all over the place, but then he made this face towards the air with some mumbled words, that allowed me to question his mental position at that moment. He tripped a bit and made some gesture with his hand as to question himself as to how he could be so clumsy as to trip over his own self. He started mumbling something in disbelief and then stopped at a street pole just a few feet away.

He placed one hand on the pole and the other forearm over and across his forehead. It was there that he stayed for about ten minutes. Eventually he removed himself from the pole, and tripped and started to drift away. Shortly thereafter, his replacement showed up.

This guy was a bit stocky, a bit younger, maybe early thirties, a t shirt and shorts, with tats all over his legs. He wore a baseball cap of some sort and seemed kind of like a tough punk type cat. He was intelligent looking with glasses and was having a rather upsetting conversation with himself as he too mumbled something in disgust and made some hand gesture to confirm his disbelief.

Now I have become someone who has started to make conversation with himself from time to time, and occasionally, I have some harsh words towards my inner self in the process in an outward form of expression; but I started to worry last night if I too looked like one of these folks when on occasion I spout something out in disgust towards some inner thought or conversation I may have been engaged in. Where it made me self-concious for a minute, It also made me feel comfortable in the fact that other people do that, even if they look the fool. There is comfort in similarity!

Anyway, the next few minutes featured groups of intoxicated people laughing and shouting whatever it is they were shouting about. Several groups were speaking in languages unfamiliar to my dialect. Others were obviously young college kids, inexperienced in drunk noise level control. I had two thoughts when watching the drunk college kids. “what a bunch of losers…” and “oh how I miss those days!” But in hindsight, I’m thinkin, who’s the real loser in that crowd, the drunks having a good time and making a little bit of fools of themselves, or the early thirties college dropout sitting on a bench with his dog nearing midnight on a Friday night watching a bunch of people have a good time and not caring about what they may look like? Perhaps we were all losers at that moment in time. Once again, perhaps comfort in similarity…

The next phase of people were random and featured a guy on his cell phone, a couple of fairly attractive young women getting in to a cab, and a Chinese man, lugging cases of soda on a hand truck up the street and then returning a few moments later with a hand truck and empty soda crates.

After some time, I felt it getting time to return. The doggie agreed. We got up and walked to one corner, where surprisingly enough, the ta-too punk guy was hailing a cab, and still looked frustrated. He hailed a cab which made a quick u turn and picked him up. We made a u-turn and headed back to the house.

Feeling good about our people watching experience, and our escape to the outside for a little while, we turned the corner and headed towards the house. Curiosity got the better of the doggie however, when she sniffed in a fence, and got maced by a skunk (see previous post.) On the way back, she frothed at the mouth and was swaying and kind of freakin out. She tugged and pulled towards the house, while I spoke with her to comfort her much of the way. I can only imagine the people watcher’s thoughts on this street noticing the loner and his frothing dog sprinting towards their destination. The watcher becomes the watched.