Slow fun

Saturday fun at a slow pace

Life moves at a much slower pace in most Korean neighborhood parks on weekends, like in the park downtown Cheongju shown in these pictures I took a while ago.

On a typical Saturday the elderly (lots and lots of them) can be spotted in any of these parks from early morning to late afternoon, sitting on benches holding their canes, reading the day's paper, telling each other stories, playing traditional Korean games, walking around and even dancing to some made up melody played by a fellow elder street vendor 'scissor player'. ("what?") That's right, elder street vendors in Korea tend to be very talented in playing scissors (you really gotta see it to understand it) to attract people's attention to whatever they are selling. When well played, (I don't really know what that just meant. lol) the usually huge and rusty scissors, always one in each hand, make an interesting loud and powerful sound that will instantly grab your attention and most likely make you stop to watch the casual happy performance. Fellow foreigner, if you stop to watch these lovely entertainers by nature, yes they will try and do a little dancing for you as well, which never fails to make me smile, by the way. So, if you're shy, you might want to just smile and keep walking; but if you're not, since you've already stopped, why not enjoy the exclusive attention and dance along? If that's in a big city like Seoul, you might even end up in the paper or on TV!

To talk about Korean elders and not mention the huge respect and praise this society has for them, is a bit hard to do. It's all pretty much thanks to the Confucian system, which has taught for centuries a great respect and praise for elders in this country. The elderly here are often cared for by their so dedicated children and the general public always, I mean always, gives preferential treatment to their dear "할머니들" and "할아버지들" ("grandmothers" and "grandfathers"). Korea does feel like it's all one huge family, and it won't take long until you feel part of it too, I promise.

Look at the huge rusty scissors in the man in the red vest's hands