Scared to death!
So as I was saying, going to Portland is always a treat. There are weirdos all around but once you walk around for more than a day those freaks start to look like everyone else and you tend to just walk right by them. While I was waiting for the train I happened to see a family of tourists. They couldn't look more like tourists if they screamed it from the rooftops. The mother was clutching her handbag so tight her knuckles turned white while the father was doing is husbandry duties and holding her from the dreaded weirdo's all around. The daughter and son were looking around with their jaws dropping from every sight of the tattooed man, homeless woman who smelled disgustingly of B.O. and, of course, the 50 year old woman with her hair standing straight up in a mohawk. But they were mesmerized by something or someone who sat to the right of me. I didn't bother to look at what they were staring at because I was too busy laughing at them looking scared to death.
I then remembered back to how my sister and I must have looked as tourists for the first time in Portland. We were scared of everything and if someone looked at us in an improper way we would run the other way hoping they didn't follow. We clutched our purses probably as tight as that mother, again, hoping no one would rob us. I looked back at that memory and thought how the weirdo's must have laughed at us!
Ah, tourists aren't we a great people visiting another state in hopes we have fun but not talk to any of the locals?!?! The next place I go I will interact more with the people of that city because how many people actually want to do harm to others, really? The percentage is low. Look at my brother, who travels EVERYWHERE and I do mean everywhere in the world and he is perfectly healthy and only encounters problems in Mexico (and that was just once).
Now that's not to say I will trust everyone I encounter. There still has to be a bit of worry traveling to another area but I don't think I will freak out next time when someone looks at me and smiles.
2 comments:
Don't freak out. I had a mohawk earlier this ear and I am 34. People get to hung up on appearances. I like the weirdos they are less scary than the normal people.
I AM A WEIRDO!!!!
Oh, I remember the days when we found a peep hole in our hotel room in San Fran and I thought the Asian mafia would come after us if we said anything. In Mexico, Portland, Seattle, Denver, etc. I thought everyone would kidnap us or steal our money. Ha funny times! I wonder how many good people we missed out on talking to! I still think SLC is the scariest for crime, go figure!
Post a Comment