That old security guard at the Sunrise Galleria who just wanted to talk

I was at the Sunrise Galleria in Orlando last fall, taking pictures of the empty fountain court. This security guard, maybe in his 70s, shuffled over. I braced for him to tell me to leave, but he just pointed at a closed-up cookie kiosk and said, 'My wife worked there for 22 years. She knew every kid's birthday in this whole county.' He told me they met when he was a cop walking the beat here in 1985. For him, the place wasn't dead, it was just quiet, full of ghosts he liked. It made me think: are we explorers documenting history, or are we just gawkers at someone else's faded life? He saw a home; I saw a carcass. Has anyone else had a conversation that totally flipped how you view a place?

2 comments

2 Comments

thompson.tyler1mo agoTop Commenter

Please. We're all just gawkers.

the_mia1mo ago

Actually, there's a big difference between watching and caring. Some people are just looking, but others are really trying to understand what's happening. Calling everyone a gawker ignores the folks who are actually paying attention and learning. It lumps the curious in with the people who don't care at all. That feels unfair to the ones putting in the effort.