Ethnography

Ethnography

October 15, 2014

To Rude in button ups for the coffee shop



I walk up to the coffee shop and three men are sitting outside enjoying the nice day and their coffees. All three wear glasses, have gray hair and button up shirts; the only difference is the patterns on the men’s shirts. I go inside to get my food and drink and when I return the men moved to a table that is more in the shade then the table they were at. I sit down sort of close to them to get a better observation point. 

The man in the striped blue and white shirt goes inside to get his coffee filled when my food comes out, I feed the bread to the birds and they fly closer to the button up shirt table. The man in the solid blue shirt screams loudly, I am assuming at the birds to scare them away. The other man that stayed outside with him with the Hawaiian shirt does not budge or get startled showing that he was fine with the sold blue shirt screaming. The striped shirt comes back to the table and the Hawaiian shirt asks if his ears were wringing, because they were talking about him taking so long inside for just a cup of coffee. 

Hawaiian shirt gets up and starts walking towards me in the midst of his walk he kicks a rock my way, passing me without saying anything he grabs one of the newspapers behind me and returns to his table. Solid blue shirts phone starts wringing and he answers it very sternly with his hello. He talks about planning an event and having live music play during the event, while the other men sit quietly drinking their coffee. 

Solid blue gets off his phone and striped shirt starts complaining about paying so much for Netflix and it not being worth it.  He gets on his phone and asks the other two how he can pay the bill off his phone because it is completely different then the computer. Hawaiian shirt shows him while solid blue asks why he doesn’t just delete his account if it is not worth the money he is paying. Striped shirt explains that his kids use it and they love it. While they discuss the age of his kids and needing to grow up more people start coming into the coffee shop. In the middle of talking solid blue shirt lets out another scream as the birds come closer to him, startling every table on the patio except their table. 

They then start to discuss some business; striped shirt gets very loud as he is mimicking what I think is an employee of them apologizing for something he thinks they did wrong. Hawaiian shirt sits and listens while solid blue is on his computer somewhat listening. When they go to speak striped shirt points at them saying you and you be quite, and carries on with calling the employee he is mimicking stupid. 

While I finally get tired of listening to these three men talk about other people and scaring the birds that are always here striped shirt gets a phone call. The call sounds like it could be someone he works with but when he gets off the phone he says he will be home in a few and he loves whoever is on the other side of the call. Knowing that it was someone from home by his conversation, he tells the other two he has to go and he will see them tomorrow. They all stand up shake each other’s hands and striped shirt leaves while solid blue and Hawaiian stay to finish their coffee.

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