There seemed to be a certain class-based attitude in their behavior, as if they were asserting their right to be in the park, over the largely more affluent playground-goers by using their dog. The children in the playground were all attended by mothers. The mothers did not seem to know each other well, perhaps because the children were all of different ages. Some of the mothers just watched their children from a distance, and talked on their cell phones. Other mothers, especially the mothers of smaller children, helped their children climb on the brightly-colored equipment. Many of the children seemed uncertain how to play, as if they did not come to the park often, and the mothers seemed unenthusiastic and hesitant. The children would climb to the top of the small, safe plastic structure in the center of the sand pit and look around, while the mothers would half-heartedly encourage their offspring to slide down the slide. The park seemed built to be very safe, but so safe and small, there was little opportunity for fun. There was no swing set or seesaw. I also wondered if children's opportunities for play are so circumscribed and planned nowadays, that it is hard for children to understand spontaneous, non-directed play in a park.

The other compelling dynamic that I witnessed at the park was the interesting array of joggers getting their early morning/late afternoon exercise. Several types emerged from the runners circling the park....

There was a group of fit men and women in windbreakers and shorts, wearing iPods, their eyes fixated straight ahead on their fitness goal. Then there were a few other runners, mostly women, in work-out suits that seemed more like leisure suits not designed for running. They also seemed driven to run because someone had told them to -- for weight loss or for health. I felt bad for one woman who seemed to glare at the fitter runners, when she was not looking at the ground, painfully slogging through her laps. She was wearing jewelry and perfume (I could smell her when she passed by me) and did not seem to understand the pleasures of physical fitness.
There were also some older, sweaty men, many of them wearing various ace bandages and sweat bands. They looked as if they had once been fit, but their better fitness years had passed them by, and sometimes they would try to out-pace one of the younger 'fit' women, but often fail to do so. Then they would grunt in pain. One of these older 'ex-jocks' seemed to be particularly interested in one of the younger woman, and kept trying to strike up a conversation with her, even though she pointed to her iPod and made a motion that she could not hear him. He seemed to feel that it was his 'right' to talk and flirt with the woman, and the more she rebuffed him, the quicker he tried to run and keep up with her, making small talk, from what I could hear, about his own running.

Field observation