Is my pride showing?
We sit outside, but don’t call us outsiders
MARCIE
STOCKER
Carolina Voices
Within a cloud of thick cigarette smoke, you see a group of people that most in Gastonia do
not care to meet. These people are often stereotyped for the way they dress and how they look.
As you walk out on the patio, one of the first things to catch your eye is the variety of people out there. Many different stereotypes come to mind when you look at them - “goth,” “outsider” and “punk rocker” are just a few of the different things that we are called.
There are people of all ages out there, even babies and grandparents.
I am a regular out on the patio, and from experience, I know firsthand that the people on the patio are stereotyped wrongly. The people who congregate on the patio are like one big family; we share stories about our week, jobs, family and life experiences. Parents tell stories about their children and grandchildren and often offer advice for those who ask.
On a recent weekend I met a woman from the same part of Upstate New York as my family, which is a rarity. Some of the conversations include talk of selling cars and finding summer jobs. The more reserved people sit quietly and listen to the latest boyfriend dramas. A group of adults discussed the appropriate age to conceive a child. One guy, who calls himself “Brenda,” was collecting change for his “AFS” fund, or Alcohol for Steve. He went so far as to lick the ground for $5!
There are many different characters who sit outside. There are the quiet, reserved people and then there are the loud and outgoing people who are the life of the party, like “Brenda.”
As for the topic of clothing choice, black is not the only color we wear. Many of the people who hang out there wear black for one simple reason: it matches everything. Whether you are wearing Tripp pants, khakis or jeans, black goes well with everything and it seems to slim the body. A good friend of mine who frequents the patio, James Wiggins, once explained it to me by saying, “My pants are black, and what would go better with black than black?”
Also, many of the people out on the patio are into anime and manga, and their favorite cartoon characters come on black T-shirts.
We come from many different religions and backgrounds out there on the patio, but there is one thing that unifies us: our tolerance for people’s differences.
There have been many occasions where preachers have stepped out to the patio to “save the lost souls,” but many of us practice some form of religion, whether it is Christianity, Catholicism, or even Buddhism. The truth of the matter is that society may cast us out as “freaks,” but we are not lost. There is a lot of drive that comes from these individuals, and yet people cast us out as outsiders.
Gazette intern Marcie Stocker is a senior at Highland School of Technology.