“Do you like Clay Matthews?”
Thus was a phrase spoken by one man to another man’s young daughter. When she stopped to turn around, he asked again, “Do you like Clay Matthews? You’re wearing his shirt.” Clay Matthews is a linebacker for the Packers, and his name is plastered on the back of this girl’s jersey. Somehow the jersey doesn’t consume her entirely, and is only slightly larger than it should be — but she pairs it with pink jeans and white light-up tennis shoes. She’s maybe five years old, if that, and dirty blonde locks fall down to her shoulders.
The little girl nodded, but did not speak. She did not know this man — he was a stranger. A nice stranger, surely, but a stranger nonetheless. The man went on, “I lived in Green Bay! I love the Packers!”
The girl’s father, a tall guy with a buzzcut came up along with her grandmother, who was on the heavier side of the scale but appeared happier than anyone else in their family.
“Where did you live?” asks the grandma.
“I went to Rasmussen!”
“Oh that’s great! My brother went there!”
They discuss Green Bay weather for a minute, among other things, before the man turns back to the little girl and says, “Well I like your shirt…and your shoes are awesome!” Awesome. He says it so enthusiastically — with such gusto — like he’s really trying to make the girl talk or smile or something. Awesome. Your shoes are awesome, he says, and I’m sitting here wondering why I don’t have a pair of light up shoes.
Now the girl speaks. “Thank you!” she squeaks, before turning around and running into her father’s car. The man looks to the father now, “Hey, I know you, right? You’re Air Force?”
“Contractor, actually, but yeah pretty much.”
“We’ve met before!”
“Yeah I thought that was you! Good to see you again, man.”
“Yeah, yeah, same! I’ll see you around!”
With that, the Green Bay family departs almost as quickly as they arrived. In and out of the store in under five minutes — I’m almost certain that their exchange with the Green Bay stranger lasted longer than their time in the actual coffee shop.
The People Watcher 