No one is too young to people watch
We all were kids at one point.
I know what you’re probably thinking. “Woah,” you mutter as you roll you eyes and with a thick layer of sarcasm continue, “never even thought about that before.”
No, but just go with it. How lucky we are and were!
Mini Nick JoBro (up there) was the nephew of the bride at a wedding I attended.
The aura of propriety that slacks, a dress shirt, and a bow tie usually bring, had no power over him. One moment he was giving someone a stare down [see above photo], the next he was contorted under one of the wedding chairs, observing fallen leaves and deceased creatures. He did as he pleased.
I, on the other hand, was somewhat chained to what was acceptable.
Dressed in heels and a fitted dress, I felt constrained from plopping down in the grass and exploring alongside him.
It was not only the clothes that hindered me. A week before, I had just aged out of my teens.
Twentieth birthdays are pleasant but somewhat unremarkable.
The only thing to recall is a sudden feeling of expectancy from society to act, um, adultish.
(It felt necessary to use this made-up word to break my prose. To many big words in this paragraph so far. I was not diggin’ it.)
Fortunately, at work, I get to act like a child.
I interact with the kiddies all day.
I once asked a girl where she was from. When she said New Jersey, I jokingly asked if it was better than the Old Jersey.
She replied, “Yes, of course. There’s Burger King everything. There’s Burger King everywhere!”
She was for real.
Another day, I asked another girl what her favorite color was.
She responded with a straight face, “Dora.”
I mean, duh, how could I discount that distant member of the red family?
A co-worker made me crack up right before I met a group so I approached the family group and candidly asked the young child with them, “What makes you laugh?” The eight-year-old was silent for a moment. Her red hair and freckles were only slightly louder than the thought expressed on her face. When the moment was up, she looked me in the eye and said, “People falling down.”
This kind of openness is so attractive, so amiable.
Children have the bright of life.
Kids get to eat cool things like “Ants on a Log”.
Sure, it’s actually celery, peanut butter, and raisins, but to them it’s bugs.
bright of life.
And so to bugs, kids, and curly hair – we toast!
