also this week, i had to do an observation. i had to go to the mall in bloomington and sit somewhere and observe as though i were an alien or completely new to the mall scene. here's that, if ya wanna read it... it's really boring, but i haven't written in the blog in a while, and i thought i'd prove that i have been writing!!
3:11 The spinning circular object (MGR) plays instrumental of “Meet me in St. Louis.” Man in Tan (MT) looks at me for what seems a few seconds, and smiles. I am about 50 ft. away from him. I sit on a bench. Between me and the MGR there are 3 benches that follow the outline of the MGR. MT has glasses, he wears a tan button-down shirt and faded jeans. He sits on a chair, leaning on a podium. He sits at an opening in the gate that surrounds the MGR.
Two ladies check the sign that says “Directory.” They point to different parts of the sign and then head off to the right. A green shirt lady sips a drink, stops and looks toward the sign that says “Famous Barr.” Then she looks at her watch, and then back in the direction of the “Famous Barr” sign. She walks to the right, and this is not the direction of Famous Barr. (Was there something she didn’t have time for?? She looked at her watch.)
When the MGR stops spinning, the MT uses a fluffy feather duster outside of the MGR. (I wonder if he needs to keep it clean. I wonder if he thinks I am somehow inspecting his MGR and I want it to be clean.)
MT walks slowly back to his tall chair and shuffles some papers around. The papers are on a podium in front of his chair. His legs are crossed and when he walked it was kind of a slow hobble. Now he sits hunching.
A woman with a bright orange and red striped shirt (ORS) sits on the bench in front of me. It is 30 feet from me. She has short gray hair. A man with gray hair GHM sits on a different bench with a girl. She sips from a cup that says “ICEE”. This girl appears to be about 10 years old, she sits quietly, not bouncing around, but smiles at GHM. ORS, the GHM, and the girl are all facing the MGH. The girl hands the man the ‘ICEE’ cup and he drinks some. The girl has a plastic bag with a box in it. The print on the bag is not visible to me.
3:20 A woman with a denim shirt and black fabric bag stops and looks at the MGR. The MGR is not spinning right now. The woman walks away. Why did she look at the MGR and walk away? Was she meeting people here? Was she thinking about the MGR? Had she been considering getting on the MGR like the kids?
Teenage girls walk by; a girl in a pink shirt says to a girl in a blue shirt, “You like the guy in green!” Blue shirt responds, “I didn’t say that!” The MGR starts spinning again. The girl with the ICEE has gotten on the MGR while I was listening to the teenage girls. Now GHM sits on the bench alone, and holds the plastic bag and the ICEE cup. The girl sits on a bench on the MGR and it begins to spin. She sits on the bench facing outward; I can see her face as she passes and then disappears on the far side of the MGR and then she comes back again. She sits with her legs up on the bench on the MGR. There are other places where kids have been sitting, animal shaped seats. Why has this girl chosen a bench and not an animal seat? She smiles at GHM and then reaches down and pulls on the tail of the horse seat in front of her. Now a gray haired woman GHW sits next to the GHM. Did they know each other? Where was she? Did they meet here? A white shirted woman (WS) has sat next to ORS woman now. They talk to each other, but I can’t hear their words. I can hear the voice of WS but not of ORS. ORS has gray hair, and WS has brown hair. They are both heavy-set, with similar body shapes. (Are they related?)
3:26 Two strollers approach OM. One small girl, one baby, one boy. The boy tells OM he is 9 years old(9YR). The 9YR wears a cut-off gray t-shirt. The small girl is shouting, “Horsey, horsey!!” A teenaged girl pushes one of the strollers with the infant in it. Who was in the other stroller? Was the small girl in there? There is a woman with the teenaged girl and she pushes the other stroller. The MGR stops. The woman gives 9YR something and he sings “Thank you, Gramma!” The boy gives the something to OM and the OM opens the gate. The ICEE girl walks out of the gate, and 9YR and the small girl, walk in and onto the MGR.
“I’m in a wace!” the small girl repeatedly shouts, in a loud, high-pitched voice. She looks backward from her seat on the MGR. She sees her brother and turns again, bounces up and down on her seat and holds the strap around the horse’s neck. Gramma talks to teenaged girl, who holds the infant now. The teenaged girl sways as she holds the infant.
A man with blue and black hat on (B&B) talks to a man and a woman in a booth. The booth has a sign on it: “Sunglass Hut.” B&B is outside the booth, leaning on the counter. Under the counter, behind glass, there are many pairs of sunglasses. I believe the booth is there for people to sell sunglasses, because no person needs all those sunglasses for themselves. Maybe people buy sunglasses at this booth. Is the man there to get sunglasses? Is he there to talk to friends? A woman with a toddler on her hip sways looking at the MGR. She walks away. Was she considering a ride on the MGR?
3:32 I smell something good, it smells like when my dad makes fresh bread. Is someone making bread here? I can’t see where there is any bread. I also smell the ICY-HOT I put on my neck before driving out to ISU.
I hear, when the MGR stops spinning, popular music playing overhead. Also, over my head there is a window in the ceiling. It is very bright here where I sit. There are also many small lights in the ceiling. It is kind of humid in this area, and maybe 70 degrees.
The MGR was stopped, and now a boy is on the carousel. He has black hair and tanned skin. People he is with, two women, one holding a small child. All of them have black hair and dark skin. One of the women wears a maroon t-shirt, one wears a blue one. A pregnant lady walks by with a purse, gazing around at signs on the walls. She walks in the direction of the big sign that says “SEARS.”
A woman walks by with two children, heading toward SEARS. ORS and WS are still on the same bench as before. I wonder what else they are doing here? Are they just here to see the MGR? The MGR is very colorful, and with all the children coming and going, maybe they are entertained by sitting and watching. The MGR stops spinning.
3:38 Boy gets on black horse. He is blonde with a black shirt. He holds on to pole with both hands. A girl gets on a white bunny seat. She also holds on tight. She is blond with a tank-top on. She chews something and stares ahead of her. Boy has dropped his hands to the horse’s mane. Several women, throughout my sitting here, have approached with children, stop and stand and then leave. Why do they do this?
A man has joined the two women with black hair, the infant and the little boy. He also has black hair and dark skin. There is a small carton that says “Tropicana” on it. The man drinks from a skinny orange can, then smiles at the boy. He has pushed a shopping cart over to the others.
OM asks children who come to him what their name is and how old they are. When MGR stops, he says, “Okay guys, thank you. Hope you enjoyed the ride. Thank you. Smiles as they leave. To children going in he says, “Are you ready?”
3:45 A group of purple shirted ladies talk together and look at the sign that says “Directory.” A woman in an orange shirt OSW talks to OM. The boy she came with is on the MGR. She and OM smile and nod while talking together.
A group of girls and boys behind me talk and shout. One says, “She likes you!” Another shouts, “He likes you!” I feel uncomfortable having all this shouting behind me. I don’t feel comfortable looking back though, they might leave or think I am nosy.
Woman walks by with a cup that says “Gloria Jeans.” I wish I’d remembered there was a Gloria Jeans here! I would have gotten a coffee!
GHM, GHW, and the girl with them have left. The OSW goes away with the boy after the MGR stops spinning and they have gotten off. “Mommy,” he says, “I wanna make a wish!” OSW says, “We can’t make a wish. I don’t think they have a wishing well.”
ORS and WS walk away together. WS hobbles, her face looks like my sisters’ faces, and they are mentally handicapped. Is WS mentally handicapped?
Two dark-skinned boys with bald heads stop to talk to OM. Two dark-skinned women approach the boys and OM. OM lets one boy ride free, the other pays $1.50. OM: “They raised the price a quarter, so I’ll let you ride one of ‘em free.”
Another woman stops with three kids. OM asks their ages.
Man with flowery shirt straddles a bench in front of me. He watches people walk by. He has gray hair, there is no one with him.
The dark-skinned women sit on a bench with a stroller in front of them. “Bye-bye, thank you,” says OM. One of the women says, “Okay, let’s go.” New kids get on. The woman who came with these kids sits on a bench. She waves when the kids are visible.
No one has seemed to notice me much. The OM looks at me once in a while. He yawns frequently, but talks animatedly to kids and he smiles. People mostly ignore me, but I guess by sitting here, I’ve kept people from using this particular bench.
4:03 The area seems clean and full of new-looking things. The walls next to me are plain white. There is no trash laying on the ground. Other than the people who are here, I don’t see signs of people having been here. The carpeting is unraveling at the edges.
MGR stops spinning. The people behind me leave (Finally, I was getting irritated!) One touches against the bench I sit on while he walks by. He looks at my notebook and then in my eyes.
4:06. The MGR stops. Woman says to young boy, “Say thank you.” Boy tosses his head back and says, “Thank you,” over his shoulder.
4:07 Very quiet suddenly. Empty benches (except mine). OM reads newspaper. There is a different person in the booth at Sunglass Hut. I didn’t see her arrive or the others leave.
People came here today to walk around this place. If they were kids, they were likely to get on the MGR. The OM was there to sit on that chair and let people in and out of the gated area to get on and off the MGR. Some of the kids’ played the role of getting on the MGR. The MGR was there to spin and have kids get on it, and because the kids would wave at the parents, smile and shout, it seems that this was a recreational purpose.
People were welcome to sit on the benches and watch the MGR. Because of the conversation where the OM said he would let one boy ride for free and the other would pay $1.50, it seems that only people with money could get in to ride the MGR. It also seems that children are more welcome on the MGR, and smaller children are likely to sit on an animal, whereas a larger child is more likely to sit on a bench. None of the near-adult children rode on the MGR, so it seems the smaller the child, the more likely to ride on the MGR. Unless, of course, the child is an infant, because none of the infants in this area went on the MGR. The OM is in charge. He tells people when they can get on the MGR. He gets to open the gate and close the gate. It seems that if anyone had control over when the MGR stopped, it was the OM, because he was the only person there the whole time, and the MGR started and stopped periodically the whole time. However, it could be that the riders somehow could start the MGR spinning and stop it when they wanted to. This does not seem likely, because every time the MGR stopped, all the children got off, and all new children got on. No children ever got back on after getting off the MGR. So I would say the OM was the one in charge of the MGR.
The adults either gave the OM something, or they gave it to the children to give to the OM. Something was always given to the OM before children were admitted, and it always came originally from the adult. I would therefore say that the children had to wait on permission from the adult in the form of something to give to the OM in return for a ride.
The discourse in this area seems to be to have fun and pass time. The children laugh, smile and shout. The OM smiles as he talks to the children. The adults wave to their respective children. A sign on the gate near the MGR read:
Carousel Memories
This exhibit represents a unique & irreplaceable
heritage & provides important context outside a
museum for people to experience not just the art
but the magic of an antique children’s carousel.
It seems that children have fun on the carousel, and as the sign suggests, art and magic are conducted through the use of this “Carousel.” The MGR, or the Carousel, seems to symbolize the past. Children are here to have fun on the Carousel, and adults are here to remember riding on a Carousel as a child. The OM is the keeper of nostalgia, as he is responsible for entrance to ride the Carousel. Also because he controls the Carousel’s actions, he is the keeper of nostalgia. The music playing when the Carousel turns is “Meet Me in St. Louis,” and I know this from being in the musical once. This play was set in the year 1904, in St. Louis, and the focal point of the musical was the World’s Fair, where there would be a Carousel.
