People Watching

I have to admit, I'm a people watcher. I had a great opportunity yesterday to do just that. I went to the drag races with my husband. I've been to NASCAR, but never NHRA before. I have to admit, they are very similar, and they both quite surprised me.

Let me explain. When you listen to the media, you expect to find a certain thing when you go to a NASCAR or NHRA event. You expect to find beer swigging, gun toting rednecks and not much else. That's not the case. It's actually a varied cross section of America represented at an NHRA event. Take for instance just the people sitting right around me. There was a lady sitting directly in front of me who at first I identified very much with. She had on faded jeans and a race shirt. She spoke with about the same accent I did. She was slightly older than I was. She was sitting with a man about her age, dressed the same as she was. As we talked, we seemed to have about the same backgrounds. We liked the same music. I put her in my economic bracket, about $45-60,000. Then she pulled out one of those top of the line smart phones. I can't afford one of those. I had to re-evaluate. My brother-in-law, who works for AT&T has one of those and he makes about $120,000 a year. Suddenly, I couldn't quite identify with her as much. I don't know what it's like to make that much.

Sitting behind us was an African-American couple that made way more than us, and knew it. She acted a little snooty about it, though he didn't. My husband, who was explaining things to me, asked if this was her first time. He was meaning that he could explain things to her, too. She snottily said, no, I've been before. I guess she took it as if she couldn't afford it, and that he was acting like a redneck who had never been before.

Sitting beside us was another African-American couple. My husband cheered for the Army team. He let out a big Hooah! He must have been Army, or at least military himself. We're Navy, but when you don't have a dog in the hunt, there is no sibling rivalry. You cheer for the military. We must have looked a bit mixed up, my husband and I. We had forest camo jackets on, with our Navy hats. It was a bit cool and had been misting rain.

Actually, I had forgotten a hat all together. A man had caught us getting out of the car, and sold us a couple hats to help support Meals on Wheels. With it we got a free flag decal for our car. Yes, things are expensive and the capitalists come out at the race. But, that's capitalism. We had $10 each, so we went ahead and bought them. I needed a hat, and, no, I didn't know for sure it was going to Meals on Wheels, but $10 for a hat isn't bad. The food was outrageously expensive, and you can't take anything in with you, not even a bottle of water. We paid $4 for an ear of corn!

Across the isle was a group of white people who had been drinking a bit too much. The woman was close to 60 and another woman who looked young enough to be her daughter had been helping her up the stairs when she fell up them. If it hadn't been for a nice African-American man in his late 40's, with his teenage son, she'd have fallen real bad. Most people were real nice.

Now, here's where everyone is going to scream profiling, but I have to report it. I had only one incidence. Well actually, two, but I'll write of that one later. We had gone out to the car to eat the snack lunch we brought, and were on our way back in. So here we are, a couple strolling in, arm in arm, wearing our camo jackets and Navy hats. The jackets have no insignia because we aren't Army. They only have the American flag on them. I see walking towards us a Latino/Hispanic/whatever the politically correct term is. He was rather good looking man, young, probably early to mid 20's, a little heavy set, but not fat, it was more stocky like he lifted weights. His face was round, but again, not fat more of a shape. He had heavy tattoos, but not that I recognized. They were symbols not pictures. I'm not against tattoos; I have one. These reminded me of pictures I've seen when they do documentaries of gangs. I say it that way, because I don't know anyone in a gang. That's the only experience I have. When the news portrays someone in a gang, they have tats like that. That's what I'm saying. As he approached us, he turned the upper part of his body (from the waist up) at a 45 degree angle away from us, and his face even further. This made an extremely awkward picture of him walking. His legs continued to walk a straight line, but his waist turned like he was going to walk away from us, so that his back was to us, and the back of his head was showing and I could no longer see his face. It was like he couldn't even look at us.

Is this common? Is this a total dissing that we just got or what? Is this a cultural thing? I didn't say anything to my husband, who was totally oblivious to it as we walked by. I smiled, but didn't make eye contact. I didn't turn around to see if he looked back. I waited about 20 paces and then I looked back, but he was gone. The whole event made me want to walk out with a crowd, and not alone. To tell you the truth, for the first time in my life, it made me want to take that camo jacket off and blend in with the crowd. But I refused to take that jacket off even when the sun came out and it got hot.

The second event came when Al Anabi raced. Sheik Khalid Al Thani is the sponsor but he's not the driver. Matt Smith is the driver. Matt Smith lost his race, and someone behind me yelled "F***ing Arab!" That's not cool. The driver is just driving a car. But I have to tell you, it shows America is waking up. Nine years ago I knew absolutely nothing about Arabs beyond I Dream of Jeannie. I've done research and I don't like what I've found. If there are moderates, how come they don't speak up? And how come the only moderates that speak up are peons? There are no moderate Imams? That's all I've got to say on that matter.

So, all in all, it was a pleasurable day of people watching. There are a lot more designer jeans than I expected at such an event....a lot more cash being thrown around. And a lot more frozen margaritas mixed in with the beer. If they want more of the seats filled, I would suggest lowering the price a bit. Or making it like NASCAR, where you can bring your own food in.