What is Wrong With People?

It’s a Saturday, and there is a lot of business going through Tonland Mall at the time.  It is about noon, and there are people everywhere sitting down to grab a bite to eat, including myself.  While enjoying my meal, I notice a family to the right of me sitting down.  It looks as if there is a grandmother, a mother, and maybe a daughter.  I did not see any male figure with the family, but maybe that could have been because he did not exist or was not there at the moment.  There is a child running around.  I am assuming he is the mother’s son, rather than the daughter’s.  While the other kids are playing on the indoor playground in their socks, the child is barefoot, which is highly unsanitary in such a public place.  The child continued to play while his family ate at the table.  The family seemed to be gossiping about others, and did not seem to be paying any attention to the child playing.  He had fallen and began to cry.  He ran to his family wiping his tears.  His mom did not do much but simply told him to quiet down, and quit crying.  The boy continued crying but ceased to wail. 

After that, I went to a different part of the mall, as the lack of parental attention and intervention angered me a little.  Here, I saw a group of what appeared to be middle school aged children, they couldn’t have been more than fifteen years of age.  They were all different kids.  Some were wearing the “prep” clothes, while some were wearing less than what an average middle schooler should be wearing, while others were dressed in the “swag” style clothing.  They were sitting on the stair step of a little cove, and looking at stuff on their phones.  One girl, she looked like she was maybe twelve or thirteen, was bent over one of the kids in the “swag” style clothing.  She was wearing extremely short shorts that could pass for underwear, and a crop top.  Their friends were oblivious to the two getting up and leaving with their arms around one another.  His hands were quite low, but I suppose that is considered “okay” within their logic nowadays.  They did gain attention of some adults walking in such a manner.  I noticed an older gentleman, who looked to be in his sixties, shaking his head as they went by.  I, too, shook my head and walked away to find other people to observe.

Eventually, I came across these two girls who were shopping together.  They looked like they were really good friends.  I had seen them walking around but did not pay attention to them until now.  They were both the same height, and similar body types, I figured they were sisters.  They were trying on shoes, and one of the girls was a little disheartened when she found shoes she liked, but the store did not have the shoes in her size. They continued to look at clothes.  The other girl was upset that dress season was over, and there was a dress she really wanted to take home.  The two girls were very giggly, but nonetheless, it looked like they were having quite a bit of fun.  In this same area, I saw a girl going around shopping.  Her boyfriend was slowly shuffling behind her.  He was holding a bunch of bags, so I figured that they had been here for quite some time.  I overheard her saying “almost done babe” as he rolled his eyes and trudged along.  Their interaction between one another was quite entertaining.  He soon found something to sit on there and sat there for the rest of the time they were there. 

There are always interesting things going on in life, but it takes us a while to stop and look to see what’s going on.  Some things made me laugh today, other things made me quite angry, but overall it was an interesting day.