Duck Pond Wk. 5

Week Five:

This was a quiet week sitting among the ducks, while they did duck like things. On Thursday afternoon there was the usually crowd of people. Most of them fishermen. Usually when there are fishermen out, they come in groups of two or three, but today was different. There was many solo catchers out and about. Those that come in groups, I’ve noticed, bring a lunch, chairs, and maybe some drinks. Those that come without partners or friends, don’t usually bring anything other than themselves and a fishing rod. I assume this is because when you do go fishing, and such, with a group of people it is more of a social event. While fishing solo is more of a ritual or self-meditation time. That or when you go solo, you just don’t have any friends that would be interested. None the less, there seemed to be more people with the intent of fishing solo than there usually is.

On this particular evening there was a young family out. The parents appeared in their early thirties while the child that they toted around was probably two or three years old. The young boy was very friendly and was continually going up to strangers to say “hi.” The parents were seemingly embarrassed at each interaction that the young boy had. They would run up behind the child and pick him up, while apologizing profusely for the interruption. Of course there are few people in the world that actually hate when a small adorable child comes running up to them to say hello, so one seemed particular annoyed. I wonder if the boy was friendly because of genetics, or perhaps his parents are usually friendly when they are out and about in a different environment. For example, maybe the parents are friendly when the go to the supermarket, or when there is an extended family gathering. Perhaps this is where the child gets his openness to talk to complete strangers.

As for students, there were few out on this day. There was one girl talking on the phone to a friend. She was speaking loudly and laughing. I assumed she was a student because of her age. She was there the entire time chatting away to whomever was on the other line about drama, and boys, and what not. It was difficult to not overhear. It is interesting that she choose the duck pond, a relatively public place to make a phone call, but this did not seem to faze her.

All in all not many observations could be made this week, as there weren’t many people out, besides the lovely group of fishermen, the entertaining family, and the somewhat loud girl.