SMILE IF HAPPY,
FROWN IF NOT.
Saturday 29 March 2008

    During the summer at times I would sit outside on my chair near the curb but on the sidewalk with two large signs.
    One sign said: SMILE IF HAPPY.
    The other sign said: FROWN IF NOT.
    Guess what?
    I watched the people who looked at my signs.
    Most broke into a big SMILE.
    But now and then I got a big FROWN.
    Interesting eh?

    Do some people watching. Watch how they walk... slow, fast, other. And their facial expressions. And their ages. And if they are alone or with others. See how they interact.
    Some wear ear phones. Thus they can ignore others? Or listen to loud music that makes them deaf. Or perhaps notes from school to help their learning of important subjects? Or?
    Some are so deeply focused that they ignore others, even a friendly "Hello.", or "Nice day.", etc.
    Some are paranoid and suspicious. One of the reasons is that some of the professional pan handlers use friendly greetings to entice people into conversations and then hit them for money. At times I will approach and listen, and the pan handler then backs away from his "mark". You see my presence kills the sale.
   
    Sometimes is is an old soul in a small baby or a small child that makes eye contact and smiles. And their response to spoken language can be their body language... such as a smile, waving, or shaking a foot or limb, nodding yes or no, etc. Communication has been established.
    And then there are the friendly extrovertive females that will stop and talk for a few minutes. And then be on their way. However one of the problems such females face is that some men think the female is trying to pick the man up... but not, just a friendly person. That is all.

    This is a question I might ask a woman I see walking on the street. Often they will stop and say "Yes." And then I give them a series of real positive honest compliments. I did that just early this morning at the local grocery store. The woman, oriental, is a business woman. Her university studies were scientific, but now she is in business selling clothes. Anyway after conversation I asked her if she accepted compliments. I had to explain. And then I gave her compliments on her beautiful smile, eyes, complexion, hair, body language, intelligence, etc. She was over whelmed. When she parted to continue her grocery shopping, she told me that is was nice meeting me. Like wise.

    One day I got out of the car and a man said "Good Morning." I replied the same, but was surprised because in the larger cities people are not so friendly. As I walked down the street, another person greeted me. I returned the greeting. And as I was crossing the street, still a third person greeted me. And I returned the greeting. Now I knew. This is a friendly town. Nice.
    So I wonder if the people in Peterborough, or your town, would start greeting people on the street, what would happen? It would be a very interesting experiment in public relations.