The Old Man at The Coffee Shop

We watched this old man at a local coffee shop on Monday. He's obviously a with-the-times old fellow, considering his presence at a coffee joint frequented by people who like lawful, indoor graffiti and his use of a computer (most old people tend to yak about how those young people spend all of their time on those damn brain sucking satellite typewriters these days). We did not find it necessary to circle him in the photo this time around, as his shirt is in fact the color of radioactive laser tag urine and he therefore isn't hard to see. He is also rocking' the shorts (Bermuda shorts? I'm fashion challenged.) and baseball cap, preparing for summer despite the temperature that day being about 40 degrees Fahrenheit ('Merika! Our measurements make no sense AND WE LIKE IT!1!). We only got a fleeting chance to view this old man, as he walked off, perhaps noticing our observation (Heisenberg's uncertainty principle CAN be applied to old men!), and leaving us cold and broken inside. This old man may not have been an old man on the inside, but instead a hip youth who likes local coffee shops. We may never know, as our only memory of him is this photograph.

The paper that started it all

OBSERVING THE OLD MAN WHO WAS READING

The person we chose to observe was an old man who was reading. He had a long-sleeved blue shirt on. He was bald except he had a crown of white hair on the outside of his head, as well as a beard. He also had large glasses, possibly bifocals. We all wrote down that he was an old man, except Caroline who more specifically said he was male and probably over 65. He had a small, brown paper bag in front of him, suggesting that he may have been taking a rest from shopping. He looked clean. Casandra and Caroline said that he looked like he was in deep concentration, and Lexi said he looked irritated. We all wrote down that his head moved while he was reading. Caroline wrote down that he scratched the left side of his head. We wrote down that his hands shook slightly even when he wasn’t turning the page. He shifted his body position only once. We all noticed that his watch was on his left hand. We noticed this because he picked his nose. We assumed he was right handed because if you try to put the watch on your dominant hand, it gets in the way. He seemed to have been sitting for a while, as what we assumed to be his bookmark was far from the place that he was in his book at the time of observation. We observed him for twelve minutes before he got up and left. He put his book in an inside pocket of a beige jacket and walked out of our lives forever, but he was unforgettable. Goodbye old man reading a book in the mall food court.

This was our original paper. Our psych teacher refuses to print any document in a font other than comic sans so we wrote our paper in comic sans as well. Didn't get the response we wanted, but whatever. The part about the poor man picking his nose is false. We wanted to get some reaction out of her, but again nothing... Oh well.

The picture is what I was doing while Caroline and Casandra were staring at the old man.

Weekend Excursion

I went to Birmingham this weekend for a water polo tournament and we had 5 hours between games to kill today. We went to the Somerset Mall to kill time. After looking at all the expensive shops and things we couldn't afford, we stopped at the Starbucks for smoothies and frappachinos. We took our tasty drinks to near the fountains and saw this snazzy old man. He sat there. Staring. Not talking or moving. Just sat there with his cane next to his leg and his hat on his head. I think he may have noticed me taking his picture too...

The Old Man In The Park

We observed this old man last week at a local park. He was walking around, then sitting at a bench, then sitting at a picnic table, as he is in this photo. He had a styrofoam cup with a beverage in it, maybe booze. At one point some young guy started walking towards him, and we became full of excitement, anticipating a fight or a drug deal (you know how these old guys are), but then the young guy walked by and nothing happened. We were somewhat concerned that the old man saw us (We were sitting atop the giant tires on the playground. We were doing strange things as well as watching the man.). He may have seen us, actually, because he got up and left. Like the other old man, this one was reading a book. We will miss this old man. He warmed our hearts and filled us with joy.

The Beginning

We started watching old men because our crazy psychology teacher told us to observe people and record their reactions. We found the perfect person, an old man innocently sitting in our local mall food court. I drew a picture while my associates took notes on his actions. That poor man. All he did was read in a mall food court.