A funny thing happened to me on the way to the beach this weekend. I was wearing my usual dressy shorts with a conservative, but very comfortable cut. Since I had not planned to swim, I opted to wear a colorful designer polo shirt, as well. The color coordination was adequate, in my opinion, and worked well enough with my shoes and glasses. While walking with my girlfriend to rendezvous with group of friends on the beach, I bumped into a portrait artist, a resident nudist (fortunately, he was at least wearing some covering at the time) and an elderly tailor enjoying the afternoon with his wife. These following are accounts of their initial impressions of me on that day.
The Artist:
He seemed like a real possibility at first. I was sure he would stop to get a hand-painted portrait of his girlfriend. After all, with his preppy outfit and Gucci sunglasses, he screamed “tourist” and surely had the disposable cash to have one of my portraits made. But he was in such a hurry. What was the rush? It was a beautiful day and the air was ripe with aroma of cotton candy and ocean breeze. He was certainly dressed to spend, it seemed to me. But he spent nothing. Did he think he was too good to patronize a lowly struggling street artist? We barely exchanged a few words as he scurried past my portrait stand. He wasn’t worth the effort anyway. His shirt color didn’t compliment his pale skin-tone, and his outfit didn’t even match.
The Tailor:
He seemed like a fine gentleman. Judging by their attire and demeanor, both he and his lady friend were clearly upstanding people. I knew he could be trustworthy to take a photo of my wife and me on our anniversary. With so many poorly dressed youth scurrying about the beach like confused animals, I was certain that we would never find another respectable adult to handle our camera. But this young man was different. I could just tell that he was a successful businessman of some type. He graciously stopped what he was doing to take several memorable photos of my wife and me. Before we parted ways, I overheard his lady friend mentioning something about an upcoming business meeting in town. He had no luck finding a tailor in town willing to alter his suit before the Monday meeting. Luckily for him I had a weekend crew at my tailor shop. We swapped business cards and I arranged to have his suit picked up at his hotel that evening. Like I’ve always told my wife, you can tell a lot about a man by his clothes.
The Nudist:
I wouldn’t trust his kind with a wooden nickel. What respectable person covers up to go to the beach? Judging by the expensive watch and glasses, I’ll bet he thought he was better than me. This town is full of their kind. And like the rest of them, he must be hiding something. Anyone who must cover his body with material wealth has something to hide. He looked like the type to swindled some old lady out of her home for a fast buck. He looked so trapped in his own materialism with that outfit. I don’t need expensive clothing and accessories to prove my worth or status. If it weren’t for the absurd policy of this beach to require swim trunks for men, I would show them BOTH how I really measured up to him. I do hope he enjoyed his day at this beach. It won't be long before his kind will ruin it for the rest of us. And next time, overly dressed stranger, buy a map if you can’t find your way around this beach. I’m not the resident information booth.
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Did I read this right? You're a dressed nudist who sketches people with clothes on in nice clothes where nudists go but aren't nude searching out an adult photographer to take a picture of you and your wife while you were at the beach with your girlfriend? Sounds like a good day.
ReplyDeleteJohn, your way of describing clothes by each person is well done! You created unique tone for each individual; this shows how people react differently to the same matter. It is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I can imagine young humble artist through your creative description. I can clearly imagine the scene that the artist analyzes your items to evaluate purchase possibility. I like the part artist examines your clothes artistically as “His shirt color didn’t compliment his pale skin-tone, and his outfit didn’t even match.” You successfully reveal nature of artist who tends to be sensible with colors. The line, “It was a beautiful day and the air was ripe with aroma of cotton candy and ocean breeze,” also expresses sensitivity of artist toward senses. Thus, your paragraph expresses unique traits of artist very well through tone.
Second, the tailor also shows his unique tone. I can see elderly polite tailor through the sentence, “He seemed like a fine gentleman. Judging by their attire and demeanor, both he and his lady friend were clearly upstanding people.” His choice of the words reflects his polite tone, which usually typical tailor has. You also describe the nature of tailor through the line, “Like I’ve always told my wife, you can tell a lot about a man by his clothes.” I can see the idea that clothes are very important to the tailor.
Finally, Nudist demonstrates his liberal thought through his tone. His philosophy toward cloths is revealed in the line, “Anyone who must cover his body with material wealth has something to hide.” Nudist sees clothes as such irrelevant material for life, which many of them think such way.
John, you did such an awesome job by changing individual’s tone. It is interesting to analyze how others may think about particular subject. It is very important to know in order to enhance critical thinking skill. Next time, I should pretend to be someone else to see if I can draw different point of view.