Trip to Denver offers ringside seat to humanity

Human observation can be a blast when done right.

The opportunity presented itself last month on a trip to Denver with my wife. We stayed downtown in a hotel a block off Denver’s 16th Street Mall.

The area is linked up to light rail and has a free bus service running continuous and frequently up and down its length. Restaurants and shops of all types run the length of the strip and the whole time we were there the place was packed.

We got moved into the hotel mid-afternoon and since we hadn’t had anything since an early breakfast, we headed to the nearest eatery, a bar and grill. We were told it would be a 20-minute wait I think more to discourage us from sticking around than an actual accurate assessment of when we could be seated. I sat down on their steps and a spot opened up almost immediately on the patio.

I soon realized we had a ringside seat to a sea of humanity. There were street performers working the courtyard and street adjacent to us. A young man dressed in a Broadway cowboy getup blasted out show tunes with the use of a headset mic. He was pretty good and pretty dramatic and apparently in really good shape as he bounced all over that mall without ever sounding out of breath.

People zipped by on little public-use scooters, lovers strolled hand-in-hand and street people shuffled by in a daze. Actually, not all the street people shuffled by in a daze, one disheveled gentleman was having a very loud conversation with someone the rest of us couldn’t see. His language was quite expressive, causing mothers to hold their hands over their young children’s ears.

Don’t make eye contact I reminded myself as the loud man worked the patio rail next to me.

The boy seated with his grandpa at the table next to us got his burger and obviously wasn’t happy with what he had been served. They had been seated just before we were called to the patio. He had food and we still hadn’t seen our waiter.

Back on the street a group of four blind people came tapping past. They successfully crossed the mall after navigating several obstacles using their white tipped canes, including a life-size resin cow sculpture with signatures all over its hide.

Our waiter showed up apologizing profusely for the wait. He brought our drinks back quickly and put them in front of the wrong person.

The blind group wandered back across the mall in almost the same place then wandered off down the mall.

They were replaced on stage with a possibly inebriated couple intent on riding the cow for a photo op. I thought, this ought to be fun. To my surprise he hopped right on and she took his photo. An older couple offered to take their picture together and she handed her smart phone to a stranger and got ready to hop up behind boyfriend. She was about to fail when boyfriend grabbed her arm like Roy Rogers lifting Dale Evans up behind him.

By this time we had consumed our food and the waiter had come back and made himself at home in the empty chair at our table. It was his first day on this job and from the sound of things it may have been his last day as well.

The theatrical cowboy cranked up a song and drowned out the waiter so he wandered off. The group of blind people tapped by with their canes again completing a perfect figure eight pattern.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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