People Watching at the Pool

One of the things I love to do the most is take my kids to the pool. I have to admit that I am rarely one of those moms who gets in the pool and plays with the kids. I love to take my book, spread my towel out on the chair and read. It is so relaxing. Almost as much fun as reading at the pool is people watching. I think people forget that they are in public when they're at the pool. Maybe it's because you go to the pool in your swimsuit. Let's face it, it's almost like going in your underwear. Some people's swimsuits are even more bare than underwear. Whatever the reason, people just let it all hang out at the pool (literally and figuratively). They just forget that other people can and do see them. I probably do the same thing.

Today, I watched this elegant old lady (She really was old. She was shuffling instead of walking). She was dressed in an Esther Williams-like, black swimsuit. Her gray hair was perfectly coiffed from an era long gone by. And for her age, her body looked really good. She was truly joyful to be there. She was walking by the pool towards her lawn chair when a woman in her late thirties swooped down upon her. This woman was a little heavy set, was wearing a tankini, and her blonde hair was unfashionably braided. She lit into this woman. You could tell that she was furious with this woman. The younger woman pointed towards the direction that the older woman had just come from and strode angrily off. The older woman started shuffling after the younger woman. She did not seem upset. In fact, she forebore this treatment very patiently. She arrived where her daughter (I'm assuming) was busily spreading blankets out on a couple of beach chairs. Then the older woman slowly and elegantly sat down. The younger woman continuted her tirade, gesturing, pacing up and down, getting in the woman's face. Her face became so twisted up with anger that at first I thought she was smiling; and I thought maybe she had been joking with the older woman all along. I realized though, that she had just twisted her face into a horrible, angry grimace. I really could not tell that the older woman had even spoken. There was no gesturing. she did not even move her head. She stared straight ahead with her hands in her lap. But she must have said something, because the younger girl became more and more agitated until she finally sat down in her chair (two seats away from her mother) in exasperation.

Now, at first I thought that the poor, older woman was the victim in all of this. But upon further reflection, I think she was the passive-agressive manipulator. I think that over the years she had honed this quiet way of controlling and making others feel helpless and small. It was something about her manner, the way she was dressed. Even though I thought her daughter was behaving abominably, I think she was desperate and frustrated. Remember, that things aren't always what they seem. In fact, I have found that most of the time, things are almost just opposite of what they seem.