While I was out painting this one I had four different groups that drove by, turned around, parked on the shoulder and came over to take a closer look. One group of guys who had just finished their day on a construction site offered me a beer, which I declined since I was painting. The three of them couldn't have been more than 25. I thought it was interesting that a few guys working construction would stop, turn around and come back for a closer look. If you had to choose three people out of a hundred to stop and turn around, how many of you would pick three guys in a pick-up who work construction? Right. So I was pretty surprised, but also impressed when it was a pick-up filled with three young guys. I guess they stopped to check out what the hell a guy is doing on the shoulder of the road, sitting in a lawn chair and doing...SOMEthing under an umbrella. You've seen those 19th century impressionist paintings with a painter somewhere in the picture sitting under an umbrella? Right. I was THAT guy. So, with a few rough necks approaching, I started wondering if they were coming to jump me and sell me off to the sex trade or something. But no, they were just curious. All three of them were really friendly and seemed genuinely interested. All of them had served and paid their dues in Afghanistan and were now working construction. At the risk of sounding old, I'm really impressed with the people I've met that are somewhere between 20 and 28 or so. The ones from that age group that I've met have not only been strapped with defending the worst threat to America since WWII; not only have they grown up knowing nothing other than the recession, but they've been nothing but kind to me, hard working, and modest individuals who value a wide variety of ideas. I think its admirable when people aren't what you expect. When they shatter your assumptions and are open to differences in people. When they can be construction workers driving home, stopping to check out a plein air painter.
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