I think we all need at least one really nice positive thing about the entertainment business every single day of the year, including weekends. Sometimes it may be something simple, like a video that showcases something fun and sometimes it may be a movie poster that embraces the aesthetic we all want Hollywood to aspire to. Sometimes it may be a long-winded diatribe. Sometimes it’ll be from the staff and extended family of CHUD.com. Maybe even you readers can get in on it. So, take this to the bank. Every day, you will get a little bit of positivity from one column a day here. Take it with you. Maybe it’ll help you through a bad day or give folks some fun things to hunt down in their busy celluloid digesting day.

01.09.11
By Eileen Bolender

What I’m Thankful For:

The General Public.

There is nothing that fascinates me more then the general public. These are people that you will only see once in your lifetime (maybe twice if there is a good sale) yet they manage to make an impression on you. On a busy day I encounter these people at the grocery store, doctors office, library, or just driving on the streets/interstate. On these busy days I would say that there are no less then 100 different faces that have passed my way, and yet a few of them do get my attention (whether deliberate or not, that is up for debate).

What fascinates me the most is on said busy day I am rubbing elbows so to speak of a good cross section of the city I live in. At times this frightens me to no end and on other busy days it makes me glad that I live in a city that offers such diversity.

Today I encountered the good and the ugly and the ones that stood out were:

  • The woman who comes in the dentist office with four kids and seems oblivious to the fact that her brood were a disruptive lot that at one time I thought would be literally climbing the walls. This mother never bothered to read the dozen signs in the office telling parents to keep their children quiet and to not allow them to run around. Of course she might have read those signs and determined that they did not apply to her little angels.
  • Then I saw a couple at the grocery store who I have no doubt will be on a future episode of Deadly Women (it airs on the ID channel). They were in their 50′s and the woman was walking behind her husband and she just happened to give him some information that was helpful regarding his medicine. He turns around to her and says very loudly “I know that you fucking bitch”. The look on the woman’s face told me everything I needed to know. She is used to this sort of talk and for now has chosen to just keep quiet. I so wanted to give her a coupon for some rat poisoning but I suspect she has a good stock of that already and is just biding her time.
  • Back at the dentist office the sweetest little elderly lady walked in and it was plain to see that this is a proud woman. From the way she dressed, the way she just walked in ease, to her cordial demeanor clearly told me that this woman has lived a good life and has never forgot that the most simple gestures go a long way.
  • Then there is my absolute favorite, the drivers. Whether it was the lady rocking out to a tune on the radio or the Toby Keith truck driver who likes to bully other drivers by weaving in and out of traffic and then riding the bumpers of others who, to my delight, gets no further than others as they are always caught by a traffic light. Of course the downside is you have to listen to said driver rev his motor only to find out his destination was a Burger King. Here’s hoping that whopper gives him the shits!
  • Finally, there are the workers in the offices or stores. The cashier who just has to tell every customer about her ordeal with her latest boyfriend to the cashier at Family Dollar who ask me if I had watched the Super Bowl. He then proceeds to go into a long story of why he was glad the Packers won and about a ring tone and then….well, you get the point. This young man has been deprived of people to talk to. Why did it have to me though?

The general public offers up a mix bag of personalities on any given day. It’s just some days these people make me understand why many choose to be shut-ins.