Essay on "Light Breeze and a Few High Cirrus"

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light breeze and a few high cirrus clouds above. Two turkey vultures are soaring around directly above. They are a common sight here, and no one pays much attention. it's a Tuesday afternoon and the shopping center parking lot is about one-third full. This is not a large shopping center with multiple businesses. It is basically a grocery store up on a hill. I chose this place because it is always active, and people from town, from the oldest to the youngest, shop here. It is the only grocery store in this neighborhood, and in fact the next one is 11 miles away. There is a convenience store closer than 11 miles but only tourists and people who buy newspapers, snacks or beer and cigarettes shop there. Surrounding the parking lot are a variety of fir trees. There are actually two sections to the parking lot, one 20 or 30 feet lower than the first one that cars enter. The fir trees surround the upper lot, but the lower lot looks out over a forested area and there are only some shrubs around the western edge of the lower lot. The trees nearest the grocery store are oaks and elms and their leaves are about 90% gone. What remains are colorful fall leaves.

I am parked at the highest point in the lot, with windows open in my car so some breezes blow through and I can see cars coming and going and people going in and out of the supermarket. I can see perhaps seventy percent of all the cars that are here. I have a clipboard and several pieces of paper to write on that had been printed on the other side. I always use both sides of printed-paper.

Next door and across a narrow street from the market is a gymnasium for people to have their workouts and also for physical therapy. That's on t

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he ground floor. On the second floor is a business that is a multi-service, providing office supplies, shipping supplies, copying machine services, stationary, and notary services. A FedEx sign, lighted, is in one window and a "notary" sign is in another window. There is only one entrance to this shopping area so I can see every car and truck as it comes in and parks, and when people get out of their cars I can observe most of them as they go into and come out of the grocery store. A woman (middle aged) in a tan colored Subaru parks on the upper lot. She writes notes to herself before getting out of her 4-door car. She has snow skis fastened to a carrier on the roof of her car. She is a redhead. Not flaming bright red but sort of gray-red colored hair.

When she gets out of the car I can see she is tall and the red hair is in a ponytail. She has an orange blouse and light-colored jeans. She walks a few steps towards the grocery store than stops, turns around, and goes back to her car for something. She does not lock the car door. She goes into the store. Her long legs carry her quickly because of the length of her stride, not because she is in a hurry.

Passing her on his way out of the grocery store is a man in his 60s probably. Beside him is the "bag boy" employee at the grocery store pushing the cart that holds the man's groceries. The bag boy has a denim shirt with a red tie and an apron over the shirt and tie. His hair is long and blond. He puts groceries into the customer's bag and walks the customer to his or her car, or pushes the cart if there are more than two bags. The environmental movement has made clear that using a reusable shopping bag is preferable to using plastic or even paper. But this man has four plastic bags full of groceries that the bag boy puts into the back end of the man's black Cadillac SUV. Before driving out, the man in the black SUV tunes his radio and puts on his sunglasses. He backs very carefully. I could see that he is using a rear view video apparatus because rather than looking back, he is looking at his dashboard.

A very short woman wearing a bright red sweater comes out of the store. Her car is parked two parking spaces closer to the store than my car. She is a hunch-backed person and walks with a noticeable limp. She looks at me before she sets down the plastic bag in her right hand and unlocks her VW convertible. The top is up. In her left hand is a bunch of cut flowers, bright yellows and purple flowers. She places the flowers on the seat, the bag on the floor, starts her car and does not look at me as her car passes mine on the way out. She has a dark colored ribbon in her hair.

Next out of the store is a salesman, a bit overweight, wearing a powder blue button down long sleeve shirt, heavy starched. He has a ruddy complexion and I know he's a salesman because he is carrying that typical binder that sales people carry in order to show their wares to the management. He is very curious about me and says "Hi" as he passes. His older car (parked near mine) has lines of rust around the hood. He tucks his shirt into his pants a little more than it was gets in and starts the older Toyota. His muffler has holes, and the car is loud as it slowly leaves the parking lot.

Two women wearing black jeans and black windbreaker jackets approach the white Chevy minivan directly across from where I parked. One woman is black, the other white, with a blond ponytail. A man approaches also wearing black jeans; he is obviously in their group. Soon two younger men come out of the store and go directly to the white Chevy minivan. One of the young men has a black leather jacket; on the back is written "Sons of anarchy." The black woman (wearing large wrap-around sunglasses and long dangling earrings) has lit up a think cigar and the blond ponytail woman has lit up a cigarette. The young man with the black leather jacket grabs the blond woman and pushes her up against the car for a passionate kiss. They lock lips for a long kiss. The van has "V3" stenciled on the back. They all are smoking now. The first man looks over to see I am looking at them and he tells the others they are being watched. I stop looking but continue writing. They hang around the van until they finish their smokes. The first man starts up the car and the rest pile into the side door. They drive out very slowly. It was odd because none of them carried a bag of groceries when they left the store. If they bought anything it must have been small enough to put in a pocket or purse. Before they all got into the car I heard the kissing man say something about having planted walnut and almond trees. The license plate is 3WQJ552. I'm not sure why I wrote that down but there was something suspicious about this group. Something that didn't fit with the neighborhood.

Day Two

On Wednesday morning, the next day, it is cloudy and windy. I park in the same spot, with a view of all cars entering the lot. A black Honda Element pulls in two spaces from me. The woman that drove in is very short and very, very thin. She looks like she might be anorexic. The man who was the passenger is tall, robust, black hair and designer jeans and boots. He glances over at me probably wondering briefly why I am sitting in my car.

Another cars pulls in near the Honda. A man gets out wearing red shorts, sandals and a blue shirt. He has gray hair and a gray-white beard. He disappears into the store quickly. A woman comes out of the store with two paper bags half full of groceries. No bag boy helps her and she seems to struggle a bit with the two bags. Her hair is gray blond. I can see rings on her left hand as she passes near my car. It might be rhinestones or diamonds, but her car is an older model Nissan with a dent in the right front fender. She looks at me, and smiles. "Hi," she says, knowing my windows are open and that I'm watching her. I answer and smile back. She starts up the car before leaving reads something on an envelope that was in the passenger seat. She picks up her cell phone and makes a call. Just recently the cell phone company has placed a new transmitter on the… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Light Breeze and a Few High Cirrus" Assignment:

“

As the pioneering anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski suggests, information about

cultural practices should come *****full flavored***** from our own observations of life, and not

just from interviews. Although we may think we know what people do at a coffee shop or

shopping mall, for example, simple observation can provide a much richer perspective.

For this assignment you will observe a particular setting to experience part of the

research process of anthropologists. You will observe a place twice (on separate days)

for no more than 15 minutes each time. You will hand in a five page double-spaced

write-up of your observation. Please follow the directions below.

Choosing a place: Many students choose shopping mall locations, coffee shops, fast

food restaurants, parking lots, or outdoor public spaces. Your place needs to be a public

or semi-public location where there are sufficient people to observe during a fifteen

minute span of time. We do not recommend a place or gathering where most people

know you. There are three types of places that are not acceptable for the exercise:

places where children outnumber adults (e.g., daycares, playgrounds), locations on

either ***** campuses or where university students overwhelmingly predominate, and

your home (including your street). You must also choose a place where you are able to

return to do a second observation.

Interaction: This is an observation exercise only. You are not, under any

circumstance, to engage in any interviews or discussions with people for the

purpose of your research. If someone becomes concerned with your presence, speak

to them and explain that you are doing an observation assignment for a university

course, but otherwise return to your observation.

First observation and note taking: Find a location to observe the scene in a nonobtrusive

way, sitting down if possible. From this vantage point, observe the people

and place and take occasional notes over a fifteen-minute period. We recommend

that you jot down quick notes that will remind you of observations. Include descriptive

information about the scene (e.g., the layout, the atmosphere, weather, people who are

there), and what people are doing. Anthropologists generally use their jottings (short

sentences, keywords) to jog their memory when they write-up more comprehensive

notes later in the day or in the evening. We recommend you do this: fill-in, expand on,

and rewrite your notes on the same day as the observation. If you leave this work too

long you will begin to forget.

Second observation and note taking: Return to your location and vantage point a second

time on another day for another 15 minutes of observation. You may find it works well to

conduct the observation at a different time of day. Follow the same procedures with note

taking and expanding your notes later that day.

Important: if you happen to know or hear the names of any individuals you observe, do

not include them in your notes or write-up. Use non-personal descriptions to refer to the

people you observe (e.g., older server, mother, quiet friend).

Paper write-up: Your write-up should include the elements listed below. We are

interested in what you observed, not information that you collected from other

sources or knowledge that you possessed prior to your observations. For

example, researching the place on the Internet and including this in your description is

definitely not part of the assignment, nor are any prior experiences there.

1) In a paragraph explain where you went, how you conducted your observation,

and provide any explanations you feel would help us understand your choice.

2) Describe clearly in one or two paragraphs the place and activity, and any

differences or changes from the first observation to the second.

3) Explain in a few paragraphs what people did during your observation. We are

looking for careful and thoughtful descriptions of peoples***** behaviour, including

differences and similarities in activities. This is really important, as we want to

know what you observed about people. You can make simple assumptions such

as assuming that people in uniform behind the counter of a coffee shop work

there, but refrain from going too far in analysis from what can be reasonable

surmised from the observations. Providing an appropriate analysis is part of the

challenge of this assignment.

4) One or two paragraphs at the end should draw together your observations into a

conclusion. While we expect that most of you will be observing fairly mundane

happenings, you should include here what you saw that you did not expect to see

and what understandings you have gained through the observations.

This exercise therefore requires you to observe, collect descriptions, summarize these

descriptions, and finally make basic an*****s and provide a conclusion. The exercise

does not require outside theories, analytical frameworks or library research. Too

often, the benefits of simple observation are undermined by preconceptions or

expectations.

How well you do on this exercise is largely based on how well you follow these

directions. We expect well-written paragraphs with complete sentences. To do well you

will need to rewrite your exercise at least once and carefully edit. Rewriting will also help

you to identify what is important and interesting. Point-form descriptions are not

acceptable and will be heavily penalized. To repeat: concentrate on the observations

and do not include specific information that you knew before you started or have

gathered outside of the observations.

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