Musical accompaniment: Magic Bus by The Who.
How do you feel about crowds?
I’ve visited New York City and Chicago at different times and remember feeling really energized by crowds. Particularly in New York. Some kind of energy emanates from the pavement. You feel more ✨alive✨ there. Once my friend and I went to a Chinese New Year’s parade in San Francisco and it was a sea of humanity that was really fun to be part of.
I’m not exactly a people person. I like people. I like hanging out with people one-on-one. I love to present or perform in front of an audience–the biggest I can get! But I have all kinds of anxiety about anything related to small groups. It’s okay if we’re all there for a specific purpose, like a wedding or a play. But in situations where you’re just supposed to stroll around and chit-chat with people, I’m sunk! It has nothing to do with the people themselves; I feel the same way even when I really like everyone there.
Which brings me to today’s post, which is a picture of a Green Car Sightseeing Service in New York City, circa 1910. This is a group of editors and publishers, including Mr. and Mrs. Albert S. Hardy, of Gainesville, Georgia, who are sitting in the rear seat. Mr. Hardy was associated with The Gainesville News. Presumably they were staying at the Hotel Bartholdi.
georgiaarchives.org
The prospect of finding myself aboard this sightseeing bus strikes terror into my heart. It reminds me of something I heard a long time ago about personal heavens and hells. I’m not sure if it was a joke or just an idea. For me being trapped in a car where I had to talk and socialize with newspaper editors for an indeterminate amount of time with no hope of escape would be like a customized personal hell. But there’s someone out there who thinks a 2 or 3-hour excursion with a lot of opinionated, argumentative strangers sounds like heaven!
What about you? Would you like to climb aboard this bus?
Hey, did you see Has It Come to This is available again? It’s taken me a long time to republish my books but it’s finally done! Has it Come to This would be a great Christmas present for any true crime lovers in your life. A real Christmas Eve murder mystery!
old spirituals 
that’s funny you like big audiences but you’re terrified of small groups! I like groups of all sizes!
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Yes… I like talking with people one on one too. I just don’t know how to fit into small groups. Maybe it’s a side effect of being an only child!
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being an only child could have a lot to do with it!
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It seems you are uncomfortable with the composition and location of the audience not so much the size. I had to speak multiple times to very large groups. The size didn’t make me uncomfortable, it was the composition of the audience and the location. My audience consisted of hundreds of members of the Union, in the union’s auditorium, the company must have financial concessions in the next negotiation.
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Yes, you’re right about that. I have to say, as much as I love performing, I would rather perform a magical disappearance than do financial negotiations for a union. That is a very tough position to be in! It isn’t as if you could just make any concessions you wanted. That kind of work requires a lot of diplomacy and courage!
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