Mellow Mall

Date: Saturday October 17, 2015
Location: Mall - El Paso, TX
Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

It is a gray, overcast day in El Paso, Texas. It is warm, with a cool breeze drifting through. Pleasant weather today. Near the mall is a raging fire. I cannot see what specifically is on fire, I can just see the reddish orange flames and black smoke billowing up into the air. No one in the mall parking lot seems to care. They walk by, not even looking at the fire.

The mood is calm in the area I am observing from. Not too many people are resting in this rest area. Everyone is just walking through.

An older couple sit at a bench to the right of me. They have a young child with them. The child, a boy, may be about three or four years old. Two young women sit next to them. They seem to be related to the older couple. The young women are eating cinnamon rolls. The older man puts his arm around the older woman. Perhaps they are married. One young woman seems to be a teenager, the other young woman in her early twenties. The older woman talks to the child (who I cannot see from my vantage point once the young women sat down). They eventually leave.

Male and female's clothing today is pretty much the same as previous weeks. Males are wearing mostly T-shirts or shirts with short-sleeves. Pants and shorts are what they are wearing today. There are some males wearing long-sleeved shirts, but not many. Females are wearing a wide variety of clothing: shirts, T-shirts, jackets, blouses, etc. The females are wearing pants, shorts, skirts, capri pants, dresses, etc. The males are wearing mostly comfortable shoes like sneakers, tennis shoes, etc. The females are wearing sneakers, tennis shoes, dress shoes, etc.

The ethnic make up today is: Latino (majority), Caucasian, black/African-American, and Asian. The ethnic group with the least representation was Asian, as I only saw two Asian women during my time observing. Every ethnicity has stayed in their own ethnic groups. No mixing of groups this week.

The cinnamon roll place has had the most customers, as usual, today. The pretzel place has had more customers than usual this week. I have only seen one customer at the ice cream place. Since it is a cool day weather-wise, that probably explains the ice cream place's lack of customers.

There is an older man sitting at the bench across from me. He is on his cell phone and he looks worried. He is just talking and looking off to the side. He leaves.

A group of people are standing in the middle of the rest area. There is one older woman, one older man, two young women, and one young man. They are Latino. They are talking to each other. The young man leaves the group and sits at the bench across from me next to the balcony. He looks down to the lower level of the mall. Eventually the rest of the group joins the young man at the balcony and also look at the lower level with him. The older woman talks to the older man for a while. The older woman then talks to the younger women. They went from laughs and smiles to serious looks on their faces.