Like watching a movie

On Saturday afternoon I sat down to read by the window in the Rust's house. Instead, I spent an hour watching the square below and the people who frequented it. A man and his dog hung around for a good 30 minutes just watching and sniffing respectively. A family of four strolled through twice talking and laughing, the baby running and playing. Two or three boys started a futeball game that eventually moved into a side street. Then those same boys came back out in the square to pet and play with a dog. A young couple walked through with a baby stroller, and an elderly couple meandered through holding hands.

On the street, a woman opened her window and scrubbed the windowsill. Another shook the crumbs out of a tablecloth. Still another just stood outside her open door and watched the world go by; she was eventually joined by a man. Several windows had laundry hanging down. And with my window open, I could hear the children playing and the people at the corner cafe talking. Of course, I didn't understand a word. :-)

It felt like something out of a book or a movie. Maybe I just haven't lived in a small enough town, but I know of nowhere in America that is like this. People stop on the street and talk, they stroll around town on a Saturday morning, they play in the square, they meet at the cafe, they stand in the door of their shop and hold conversations with their friends who walk by. The other day, my roommate and I were parked in a long line of traffic, and ahead of us the man rolled down the window of his car to talk to his friend who was walking by. It isn't just that everyone knows everyone, and everything is at a slower pace. There's a certain atmosphere about it that I'm having a hard time explaining in words. Suffice to say, it's different and it's beautiful...and I LOVE it!