People Watching

My father was, in his youth and even now in his old age, an avid people watcher.  I spent many happy hours sitting in the car with my father while my mother was doing the family grocery shopping watching pedestrians walking past the car as we waited for Mom.  Dad invented a game of pointing out different facial characteristics and types of clothing and then we children would guess the person's occupation or who they were, or perhaps where they were going.  The game rules changed as often as the weather.  Dad was quite good at the game and made it such fun.  From the window of that old station wagon we saw many interesting people.  The gentleman with the mustache, hat and dark glasses became a cunning foreign spy, the little girl with red curls could have only been the vivacious Orphan Annie, the meticulously dressed woman in the stilettos was a voluptuous Hollywood starlet, and the old man walking his dog was actually a detective following a suspected bank robber.  I realize now this game Dad invented was to overcome his and our boredom and keep his six children quiet while waiting for my mother to return.

I'm grown and still enjoy playing Dad's game.  The game saves me from the tedium of another day.  I am not as clever as Dad was but perhaps that is because I don't have six rowdy children with me who need to be entertained.  I do believe I will engage my imagination a little more often then I won't have the "tedium of another day" only new adventures.  I really do love adventures.