All the world's a stage

Crowds of people can be a challenge for me. I prefer one on one, or small intimate groups where we can actually talk and interact personally, but occasionally I find myself out of that comfort zone.

Yesterday was one of those days. I took three family members with me on a short road trip to an historical site. It was surprisingly crowded and busy with people, volunteers, and performers everywhere. We had a relatively long wait before our tour began and used that time to walk around and see the outside sights -- including all these people.

I was surprised how clueless people are.

The families who came to see their people perform blocked the doorways both during and after the performance, so people could neither come in, or go out until these people quit visiting. A well dressed woman probably in her early fifties whizzed up and down streets blocked off for pedestrians only, which was understandable since she needed her little scooter to get around, but her obviously intentional need to claim her space almost ran down my granddaughter on the sidewalk. My adult granddaughter also has special needs that make getting around difficult.

The woman made me angry. She knew she was forcing people to scurry out of her way and seemed to feel totally justified. She dropped one of her pamphlets as she zoomed by and I called out, "Excuse me." She glared back as if daring me to say a word. "You dropped your pamphlet." I walked over, picked it up, and handed it to her. She did have the grace to look a little embarrassed.

During the actual tour of the house, a tall, middle aged couple constantly took the front row, blocking the view of everyone else, especially my daughter and granddaughter who are both under five feet tall. Then this couple talked loud enough to drown out our tour guide in nearly every room with their chatter intended to impress us all. They did make an impression on me.

There weren't a lot of children there, mostly babies and young adults, but one family had brought their boys, probably between eight and ten years old. I never had any doubt where they were at any given moment. Everyone could see them racing around, throwing a ball and performing. and no one could escape their overly loud family interactions. If they were close, we could hear nothing else. I wondered if these proud parents realized the disservice they were doing to their boys.

It sounds like I was just there to criticize the crowd, but on the whole we had a wonderful day. Many people graciously shared seats and shade with those who came after them. Another little boy held the door open while we all walked in to one of the houses and there were conversations all around as we read the plaques talking about the Underground Railroad that once ran through here, or the pioneers who turned Springfield into the city it is today.

In these turbulent times, places like this give Americans a venue for showing the world who they are -- not by what we say, but by how we act.