Airport a people-watchers’ heaven

Last week I talked about the fascinating practice of people-watching. Although I sincerely try to leave my work at the office, I find it difficult to refrain from this part of it because observing people and non-verbal cues is a significant part of my daily routine.

I find people of all walks of life interesting, startling and refreshing. Even if you think you know all the different stereotypes, you can see a variation in the next glance.

Recently I had to wait several hours in a large airport. The endless stream of people parading by the social interaction I witnessed was at times startling to a 20-year resident of a fairly provincial Central Texas town.

Let me share some of my observations.

• The first to really catch my eye and ear was a man promoting a religious sect. His manic fervor provided an outburst of energy that filled one corner of the area where he was standing. If he occasionally captured someone’s attention, it seemed to spur him on to greater heights. While his body was vibrating, his voice at times was barely distinguishable from that of a barking dog.

• I very much enjoyed witnessing the arrival and departure of families from various parts of the world. One whole family from the Orient, father, mother, teenagers and toddler were dressed in native attire. As they apparently spoke no English, they created quite a stir during their lobby sojourn.

• Another young and man and wife dressed in costume, from India, I believe, certainly had the newlywed-look. Their eyes never left each other; for all practical purposes no one existed in the world except the two of them. Their romantic attentiveness gave witness to the fresh bloom of love, confirming the fact that this experience is cross-cultural and knows no geographical boundaries.

• Still later, an older couple emerged from one of the broad concourses with an entourage of skycaps and at least 15 pieces of luggage. From their high fashion flair of dress and the cosmopolitan hairstyle, I surmised they were world travelers, and I curiously tried to eavesdrop on their conversation to detect an accent. Perhaps they were British, I thought. But they passed by in silence and my imagination followed them trying to fill in the gaps.

• I am always impressed with the ever-present young military personnel moving from one assignment to another. Their clean-shaven heads, crisp, polite manner and generally courteous attitude gives one confidence in those protecting our country.

• The time passed as I thought how people for the most part are good, kind travelers. But, alas, there appeared the devil’s advocate. A woman caused quite a stir as she complained about eh lack of service, her lost luggage and general disgust with the whole world. I found it necessary to cover the ears of my 6-year-old daughter, as the profanity that escaped her lips would have been appropriate for one of the crew members of Black beard the pirate.

As I said before, you don’t have to be a psychologist to enjoy observing people. Human behavior is, to my way of thinking, one of the most fascinating aspects of life on this planet. Although it has a lot of commonalities, the variety of observable differences is abundant. People are as diverse as wild flowers in a field, if you take the time to look for them.

Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1986