Oh, how I love looking at all the people. Today was great because many have come to town from all over the country and even the world. To see how we are so much the same but yet different is just amazing to me. This started me thinking about my dad and how he loved people watching too!
Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. When I was growing up my mother loved going to country music concerts, her favorite singer was Conway Twitty (Ladies and gentlemen the best friend a song ever had.....opps sorry I got sidetracked
).Now this is the mid 70’s to early 80’s when a concert didn’t cost an arm and a leg, so mom would get all of her friends to go and most of the time that meant dad and I would go as well. During this time period the artists would actually sign autographs after the concert and the band members would run the table that had the albums, t-shirts, pins and other memorabilia that they were selling. Mom would have to have an autograph, even though she had a blue million of them from all of the other Conway concerts she had gone to. So off she would go to stand in line to get an autograph. And what would dad and I do? PEOPLE WATCH! That’s right we would sit there in our seats and just watch the people go by and everything else that was going on. He never rushed her, never complained and I never understood why or how he could be so patient. But looking back I understand that one of the main reasons why he agreed to go was his enjoyment in people watching.
Now how does this tie into genealogy and people watching in my family for generations? It’s because while I was sitting there today (people watchin’) I remembered a story dad told me several years before he died. When he was young his mom and dad, an aunt and uncle, his cousin and him would take a 5 lb roll of bologna and drive to the town square of the bustling metropolis of Hodgenville, Kentucky, park the car, and spend the whole day in a wonderful pastime ….That’s right people watchin’ !
And I have no doubt in my mind that one reason my grandparents did this was because they had seen their parents do it. So as you can see I come from a long line of people watchers and even when I try to have a genealogy free day it still sneaks up on me!
It makes you realize that we really have more things in common with our ancestors then we sometimes think. |
| I used this picture of dad because it's one of my favorites. |
I like people watching also! And I get it from my mom who still enjoys it. Her parents used to take she and her sisters into the "city" to shop and the girls would stay in the car. That's probably where they got their start.
ReplyDeleteMy mother has always said that some of the best people watching occurs at the airport. I remember when I would fly home from college and she would be waiting for me in the terminal (pre 9-11, of course). She would always have a smirk on her face as she was trying not to laugh at some haggard traveler that she was watching.
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