I love the stories of people’s lives.
One of my life’s highlights was an overnight bus trip from North Carolina to Pennsylvania. I spent hours eavesdropping, learning the stories of the people around me.
- The driver and the elderly woman in the front seat gossiped about African-American high society in Wilmington, NC.
- The young Native American who got on the bus near Camp Lejeune told his seat mate about the day his grandmother cut off his braid for safe keeping before he reported to the Marines.
- And the man who left a girl sobbing in the parking lot where he boarded the bus explained that he had recently gotten out of prison and had just met his adult daughter for the first time.
If you want to write, take a long bus trip. You’ll find pages of material.
What does all this have to do with a dog blog?
While surfing around YouTube for videos of boating dogs, I found a snippet of a story—a story about a family in Thailand coping in a flood.
And when you have four dogs and all the dry land around your house disappears, what do you do? Watch the video for yourself.
Don’t you want to know more about how this family coped with the flood? I do. It looks like a great story.
I’m glad they made it so easy for me to eavesdrop on them.
Do you like overhearing people’s stories? Do you listen in at the dog park? On the bus? In the check out line at the store?
I am such a people watcher and often tell Jack (my fiance) to shoosh while we’re in restaurants so I can hear the people at the time next to us. Mind you, when I read that back it looks a bit strange. I’ll need to work on my technique.
The best story I’ve heard was an old woman telling her friend how she fell while mowing the lawn but didn’t shout for help because it was sunny and she didn’t know when she would next be able to get a tan. I tried hard not to laugh. 🙂
What a wonderful story!
I would love to go to lunch with you. Or maybe a walk in the park. We could just be quiet together and eavesdrop.
Having a dog by your side gives you a good excuse for being out and about. 🙂
Hi Pam.
Not sure if you got my message yesterday but you won the book Todo in Tuscany, details at the end of my post yesterday. I need your address. molly(DOT)thewally(AT)btinternet(DOT)com. If you don’t want just pop by and let me know. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
I love eavesdropping on people. I do it everywhere. I get lots of story ideas this way. 🙂
But I can’t remember the best one I’ve heard though….it seems to me it was some time ago.
It depends, if it’s a good story, I will listen in.
That was very interesting – thanks for sharing! It’s nice to see people, on the other side of the world, caring as deeply for their dogs as we do!
What an interesting video…things you just don’t think about sometimes. Thanks!
They must have had a videographer follow them! I do love eavesdropping and do it all the time. I could probably start a blog called Overheard. Want to co-host it? What does that say about us eh? Sticky beaks? 😉
Sometimes my companions think I am very rude when I eavesdrop on other people, but I can’t help it if people I don’t know are more interesting than people I do know. 🙂
I got my fill of eavesdropping when I commuted by bus to grad school. Trust me, hearing what 20 year olds talk about on the bus will ruin your faith in humanity. I did live on the same route as a school for the blind, though, and got to see lots of seeing eye dogs. Not as many as you would expect, but one or two a week.
I wonder why people on planes are less chatty. I’ve never been able to eavesdrop on anything on a plane besides men talking about work.
I try not to eavesdrop but sometimes I just can’t help it. It can be quite entertaining or even sad. This story about the dogs and the boat is a bit different since they are voluntarily sharing their story. Can you imagine having your house flood and having to stay there because there aren’t any other options? I’m glad to see that they still try to take care of their dogs’ needs despite the difficulties.
Amazing how we all learn to cope with what life throws at us. I think with my crew – the girls wouldn’t want to LEAVE the boat as they think water is akin to battery acide, and I don’t see me keeping Toby calm on a canoe! I envision all of us falling in and getting soaked – repeatedly.
What an amazing video. I guess they are used to flooding in Bangkok–at least this family seemed to take it in stride.