4-07-2010

7-04-2010
Originally uploaded by cspatrick

The park today was as full as it was empty for yesterday’s concert. There were proud parents and grandparents and other family members as well as people whose presence was incidental to the concert. As we sat and listened to the music, our first observation that this could be any park in any U.S. or European city. There were family groups and kids playing and people strolling through the park and people sitting on park benches or on the grass listening to the music. There were kids crying and kids laughing and kids running and kids falling down. There was a group of boys kicking a ball around, very small kids riding a clutch of ponies being led around the park by bored entrepreneurs, old people, young people, middle-aged people; runners, walkers, skaters, talkers. We was people greet each other as old friends, families playing cards with half an eye on the kids, and every other kind of scenario you might imagine in any park in the world. There were a few blacks, some I would categorize as Indian, but the population was primarily white. Then, as we studied the patrons, we observed differences which would rule out a U.S. city. First, there were no paper cups or “go” cups. Very few people in the park were eating or drinking, although some did have water bottles. We were the exception, having brought our ice cream into the park. (A woman did stop Roger and ask him where he got it.) There was almost no litter in the park. The boys who were kicking the ball around were playing soccer. There were very few t-shirts, and none of them were white. There were no team t-shirts, and very few with other logos on them. Only one or two people were talking on their cell phones. Almost no one was overweight.