People Watchin’

I just returned from a great trip which included New Year’s Eve on a cruise ship. But that’s not what I’m writing about, at least not exactly.

I’m a people watcher everywhere I go. It fascinates me to see how people interact with their families and with strangers, and the very strange things they do. I’m not saying I don’t do them, too, just that I don’t have to watch myself do it.

As we waited for the big balloon drop, we sat in an area where you could see most of the other passengers pass by or go up or down the stairs, and it was a blast. I have so many perfect people to put in my stories, including:

• The older man/younger woman scenario: she’s dressed to the nines (as in about a $9,000 dress) and she’s shaking her finger in his face and flouncing off while he bows his head and trudges along behind. My take: a trophy wife and a long-suffering, and perhaps somewhat regretful, husband.
• Another older man/younger woman: she’s dressed nice, but not overly nice, she follows him dutifully a few steps behind, and appears to defer to him on all issues. My take: the older man with the younger girlfriend, who frets about upsetting the apple cart before the ring is on the finger.
• The group of millennial men in tight, high-water pants and brightly colored socks, gathering in groups with their craft beers and not interacting with anyone else, because they are much better communicators in text than in person. (Please don’t hate me, millennials, I just say what I see, not what I know for a fact!)
• The group of millennial women in fancy dress in the restaurant sampling several different bottles of wine, getting happily drunk, and talking boisterously with anyone who speaks with them.
• Teenage girls in sequins and short skirts, awkwardly tugging and fussing to ensure everything is at least barely covered, and trying to slip out from under their parents’ close observation.
• A father, with a young wife next to him and nearly-grown children – likely his but too old to be hers – staring resentfully at the back of the stepmother, headed into the expensive restaurant, not a smile in sight.
• A good friend adjusting her inebriated friend’s dress that’s only seconds away from having a major, and very public, wardrobe malfunction.
• Overdressed and underdressed partiers of all shapes and sizes, in all shapes and sizes of outfits (some which should have been in a different shape and size, perhaps, to appease my fuddy-duddy sensibilities).
• The variety of accents, laughs, walks….all perfect for somewhere, sometime.

As I watched, I imagined conversations going on then – and some that might occur in the morning – and tried to stow them all away in my mind to pull out later when I need that special scene in one of my books.

Are you a people watcher? Have you made notes to yourself to use what you saw later?