Interesting Characters

This is just a quick entry about the interesting people I meet along my trips. On one segment, I spoke to a retired lady who was afraid of clouds. “you see that one right there?” she asked as she pointed to a medium-size cloud in the distance. “See? That’s scary; that’s a big cloud, and it’s too close. I wouldn’t want to be near it on a plane.” At first I thought she was pulling my chain, but as our conversation unfolded, I realized she was entirely serious! Another woman bonded with us because she was afraid of rocks. “I like the rocks to stay down there where I can see them. I just don’t like rocks.” Every time we passed some big rocks, she’d shake her head and look away. These people were perfectly normal—mentally competent, that is—and their fear, though perhaps unfounded, was compelling. “I would never fly; I’ve never even been to the airport. Airports scare me,” the lady afraid of clouds confessed.

As I have mentioned briefly on a previous entry, I saw a woman who had taken off her wig and placed it next to her on a little stand (not a head, but a little red box). She slept comfortably while the wig greeted the passengers who passed by her seat and looked twice before moving on. By now I have been on some crowded trains, and I have even been woken up so that a person could sit next to me. I wonder how one asks the wig lady to move her wig so that another passenger may take a seat.

Other "interesting" people? Two days ago, a mother let her child go to the bathroom barefooted. That's correct; the kid had no shoes or socks, and he simply strolled to the filthy car bathroom. Note to parents: the train isn't the cleanest place...