When strange things intersect an ordinary moment
I was driving to work this morning & went by a bus stop with a solitary student standing there in the cold waiting for her bus. As I came within sight, we made eye contact & she let out this huge mouth gaping yawn. Even though the contact was only for a fleeting moment, so much transpired within that short time; I found myself looking at her teeth; The eye contact that we had registered that she knew I was staring at her. I started imaging what she must be feeling, how the look on her face spoke loud & clear “I don’t want to go to school, I want to go back to bed!!”
Another strange moment in time, was whilst watching a band at a small local Warburton venue. Half way through a song a guy who had turned up a little earlier got up & pulled out a banjo, stood up with the band & stand playing (quite well as a matter of fact). What slowly unfolded was some rising angst from the lead singer towards the player. This didn’t happen off stage in between songs, but it started happening during vocal breaks in the song, where there lead singer would adibly question the guitarist about what the banjo player was doing sitting in with the band; so the song is being played, but a sub plot was gaining momentum & I found myself drawn away from the song, & drawn further into the unfolding conversation that as it went along, was highlighting the fact the the lead was was pretty miffed that the banjo player just thought he could get up & play. (It turned out later that the lead guitarist had asked!) The banjo player kept playing, the song kept going & the argument was gaining momentum.
What happened next was amazing; rather than waiting for the song to be over & dealing with the matter at hand off stage, the lead singer (female) turned around & started laying into the banjo player; now the whole room was watching. Biff, bam, shouting, some tepid peace making attempt by the rest of the band, & the end result was the banjo player packing his banjo & just heading off with his adrenalin gland working overtime
Almost as quickly as it had started, people went back to their ale & their meals, the band reset, & after a short break, went on as if nothing had ever happened. Hmmmmm
So have you ever witnessed a strange event that intersected an ordinary moment? I’ve got plenty more but I would love to hear yours.
MM
June 4th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Some would think the bus stop description makes you out to look like a bit of a wierdo mic
But not me..
It really is amazing how much information we can gain from the simplest of observations.
These sorts of moments are intersting ones and my media teacher was so engrosed by them that he actively sought them out each week, he’d ride around on his bike on weekends with a sketch pad and just observe peoples behaviour.
He described, almost tearfully how ‘people were just so friggin’ beautiful’.
June 4th, 2007 at 11:49 am
I love to seek out in people the topic that makes their eyes sparkle.
For my former boss, a respectable intelligent 60 year old man, this was his dogs! I could talk about anything with him all day: politics, history, religion, the customers, coffee.. but when we brought up the little doggies he owned his eyes would sparkle and he giggle like a little boy telling me all the funny stuff they’d do.. so cute
The trains are also a constant source of pleasure for me. People are so funny! There was one morning where I was on the train and as we approached my station I stood up and headed towards the door. But as I let go of my seat the train lurched a little and I fell square into the guy opposite me. I apologised but I was laughing so much that I couldn’t steady myself so I was totally grabbing the guy’s shoulders and chest for a few minutes until the train stopped. I expected him to laugh too, but he just sat there and avoided my eye contact, which made me even more hysterical in the poor guy’s face.. oops
June 4th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Once I was at a food court with 3 of my teenage (at the time) friends. We were talking about hair and what we would like to do to ours when a guy with really cool dreads came by. We all said that they were cool dreads and were looking over at him when he looked back at us. So we all got a little embarrassed and put our heads back together to discuss this guys dreads. But he got up and threw his entire tray full of chinese takeaway at us and yelled “stop staring at me!” Then out of nowhere these two security guys turn up, take Mr Dreads away and we just sat there gaping at what had just unfolded. Then went back to our discussion as though it had never happened. The only clue being the prawn crackers and rice strewn about the floor!
June 5th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
You guys are giving me some great ideas for an assessment I have to do - keep it coming!
I was walking into the supermarket recently after a totally hectic day. I was feeling totally drained and suffering one of those brain-popping headaches, but there were two or three items I desperately had to buy (I think we had run out of toilet paper. You probably didn’t want to know that but everybody knows it’s one of those errands you just can’t put off!)
I walked behind a woman with her little strawberry blonde-haired girl in the seat of the trolley, probably around 8 months old. I caught the eye of the little girl and despite my tiredness I couldn’t help smiling at the little munchkin as she stared at me around the side her mum. Suddenly her face changed from wide eyed fascination into the cheesiest, squintiest grin you can imagine! I might as well have been Santa Claus, she was so happy! It totally changed my mood, I got a full charge of endorphins from that funny little girl.
And don’t start, I know I’m clucky
June 11th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
One of my other favourite stories is this guy that used to ride the train back from work with me. He used to walk up and down the carriage shouting “ha” and “Yeah” all the time for no apparent reason. One day he decided to come right up to me, about an inch from face and yelled “WHAT SHAMPOO DO YOU USE?!” I replied that I used Pantene and then he yelled “NO YOU DON’T, NO YOU DON’T” and then went on his way. A strange thing wouldn’t you say?