Inspiration: The Art of People-Watching, McD Style

As stated by many writers, finding ideas for stories is often difficult at best. That’s why the Write Wind has been looking at inspiration the last couple weeks. So far in this series we’ve covered a basic style of brainstorming—plumbing the depths of one's mind by using starter lists—and diving under the waters of one's imagination to find what already exists hidden there.

Yeah, well, let's be honest. That doesn’t always work, does it? Sometimes those waters hide nothing but muck and gunk, mainly because those waters are about as deep as the lyrics of a Vanilla Ice song. (Remember “That’s the way—uh-huh, uh-huh—I like it. Uh-huh, uh-huh”? Did you know there are 64 uh-huhs in every chorus of that bloomin’ song? There’s imagination for you.)

So where else can we look for ideas? May I suggest checking out the people at the local McDonald’s? 

Seriously.

One morning sitting in a booth of a combination restaurant/gas station, I saw a wonderful assortment of human beings just rife with storytelling possibilities.

Let's start with the staff. My goodness! The workers ranged in age range from 16-75. 

The manager was a quiet, young man spiffed out in his black pants, gray shirt and black tie. He was all business except for an occasional hint of a smile. 

The main cashier, a senior blonde woman, smiled cheerfully at every customer. Although she struggled to stand and walk, she made up for her infirmities with enthusiasm and grace. 

A developmentally-impaired man busied himself constantly wiping tables, mopping the floor, cleaning the doors, and changing lightbulbs. When he changed the lightbulb above my table WHILE I was eating, working so diligently to make the place pleasant, I happily dismissed his faux pas.

Then there were the customers. Patrons that day included local pastors planning this week’s worship services. Business leaders discussed advertising campaigns and sales goals. A single mother with three children under the age of 5 struggled with their energy, messiness, and cries for attention while she tried to eat her own meal and call the kids' father.

A gray-bearded refugee from a ZZ Top lookalike contest (or so it appeared) stood in line with two micro-shorted middle school girls chatting on their cellphones and each other at the same time. Construction workers in yellow shirts and hard hats sat in a booth across from a farmer in bib overalls, tee-shirt and wire-rimmed sunglasses. A single older woman in a white sweater leaned over the table peering above her glasses as she read the newspaper.

Besides the diversity of the clientele, the dining room displayed a wealth of clothing contradictions. A man in shorts and heavy hooded sweatshirt walked in from the gas station thoroughly prepared for all weather/air-conditioning temperatures. A boy decked out in his red and blue Minnesota Twins baseball apparel joined a grandfatherly type wearing a white-and-black flowered/sea-shelled Hawaiian shirt. A garbage worker wore a neon-green shirt, black shorts and high, heavy, heavy, HEAVY work boots with knee-legth white athletic socks. 

Even the traffic through the drive-through outside revealed the variety of the community and the people who stop there to eat. Large fifteen-passenger vans followed compact sport cars. A large pick-up truck revved its engine tauntingly at the family SUV ahead of it. Every model of Chevrolet, Ford, Hyundai, Toyota, and Chrysler came through at least once.

And outsiders ... In just five minutes license plates from Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Manitoba revealed the enduring popularity of the Big Mac beyond the local borders. 

Then there were the amazing driving skills on exhibition. Pulling forward from the window,  drivers juggled their meals as they steered their vehicles through the lanes, between gasoline pumps, and onto the four-lane state highway beyond WITHOUT SPILLING A SINGLE FRY! (Okay. I'm assuming. It makes for a good story. Which is the point of people watching, right?)

Skinhead, barefaced women sat with pony-tailed, goateed men. Germans ate with Norwegians. Catholics chatted with Lutherans. Caucasians laughed with Blacks. Young giggled with old. Quiet nodded contentedly at the loud...

All those people! Think of all the stories they had to tell. Or all the stories you could create about them.

And that’s just at McDonald’s. What could you see at the library? At the city park? At Walmart?

A college history teacher once told me that every person has a novel in him/her. Either to write or to be the subject of. He was right.

There are currently over 7 billion people on earth That should keep any writer busy for a while.

A spectacularly short list of public people-watching sites is on a separate page entitled "Great Public People-Watching Sites." Please add to the fun by sending your favorite places.

[NOTE: Some of the people mentioned were actually here on earlier visits and added to show the wealth of inspiration if you just keep your eyes and mind open to what is and has been around you.)