The Pond Wk 3

Well this week was full of interesting events at the Pond. This weekend, as most people know, was the NMSU vs. UNM football game. As such there were plentiful doings and goings on. I conducted my observation on late Saturday morning. There was a group of workers putting up a tent. I think it was for the Education Department. There were dozens of chairs and tables. The workers were mostly Hispanic and were dutifully assembling the equipment. They seemed happy even though they were working hard in the hot sun. When they had mostly finished, and were just hammering the last stakes into the ground, the organizers for the event came out and starting setting up tables. There was one lady in particular from this group that took the lead. Maybe that was her job, and she was supposed to.  For whatever reason she was clearly the delegator. She directed people to move the tables here, and set this many chairs here. Most event workers did it without complaint, but there were a few that seemed generally irritated with her. Soon the food was brought out, and the smell was amazing. The smell warfed the air, and brought people from all around to come check out this event, before the tailgate, in the next lot over.

Another thing that I witnessed which was noteworthy was these boys that were heavily intoxicated. Sitting by the pond one of them is talking and crying about something, while his friend sits there looking uncomfortable, and listens. This made me feel uncomfortable as well, and I wondered, in the least judgmental way I know how, when they started drinking or maybe this was the affects from last night. I also wondered what the boy was so upset about. They arrived half way during my observation and were there when I left. I wonder if crying in public is a “shameful” occurrence in all cultures or is it acceptable for some people. I also wondered if my uncomfortableness was due to the fact that this was a man crying. It was not a child, or a women it was a man. Growing up in America we learn that men aren’t supposed to cry or show strong emotion. This event was the most interesting, and got me thinking the most about demonstrating strong emotions in public.

The other notable things were the students that came from the dorms to walk over to the tailgate lot to start partying early. They would travel in groups as big as twenty, maybe even more, or as small as two, or even one lonely dude, who I assumed was meeting friends. The students were all dressed up in their Aggie attire, with their faces painted and the signs that were to be waved during the game. This got me thinking about the ceremony and ritual almost that football is in American country. Students and alumni will dress up, and go out to the parking lots and pre-game, there is food and family. Then people wander into the game, drunk, with passion for their team, sit through a whole three hours of a game then leave and go to more parties or whatever, and this happens every game. Yesterday especially because of the rivalry. As the students wandered over to the tailgate field, I was thinking all these deep thoughts about applying Anthropology to real world occurrences.