Mostly the people are only passingly interesting. Usedta be, anyways. Since I've been doing the art thing, suddenly momentary still lifes are much more interesting than the interpersonal dynamic. They are like snapshots:
The large girl arrayed like a pirate lass, the guy coming home on his retirement day, fathers and sons out for adventures, the girl from College Greens who looks like Kate Winslet, though all the more beautiful for a tragic air.
Still, the moving world is fascinating as well.
I am struck at first to the resemblance of the woman to my friend Vicki -- she was like a younger Vicki all powered up. There is something amazing about a well put together woman and she had all her fashion bases covered in a tasteful way. As pretty as a flower I decided she was, decked out in a sun dress with vintage touches. She was 21st century, Sacramento springtime perfect.
She sat next to the older lady she'd been sitting across from until the train got loaded. They talked in a way that said she wasn't just drawn in by the girl's outgoingness. They shared a singular purpose. The older woman was fair, blue-eyed with a fashion sense that made me think she was an "old lace" hippie type back in the day. They bore some resemblance.
I wished sorely I wasn't standing and the train didn't make sketching impossible because their small features made a wonderful tableau. The older lady's perfect mouth, the younger woman's wonderful neck and shoulders...ah, springtime.
The folks across from them -- they indeed had been drawn in by her magnetic property -- inquired: are you her mother?
It was a polite question. In this town she's old enough to be her grandmother. "Yes", the older lady replied with a smile. "I'm taking her out for a Mother's Day Lunch", the younger one replied and a funny smile rippled across her mother's face, a mixture of pride of place and pride in the daughter she had raised.
Two atypically gorgeous women out for lunch on a wonderful spring's day. America was great...