I am sitting inside the Jack-in-the-Box on Reseda and Plummer; it is approximately 7 o’ clock. To my immediate left is an elderly couple; behind them, a group three of mid-to-elderly aged Filipino women and to my right a family. The first group I notice is the Filipino women because they are very loud and laughing with each other. The women decide to sit in a booth. The two middle aged women are sitting next to each other and their older friend is sitting on the side opposite to them. They are wearing casual clothes nothing extravagant and they seem to be good friends. I observe that whenever the older woman needs anything- like more fires or ketchup- one of her younger friends grabs it for her. The older woman has oxygen tubes running into her nostrils, but that did not deter her from smiling and joking with her friends. The family to my right is sitting outside and away from everyone. They have a son and daughter who are between the ages of 5 and 7. The two children walk around the patio before their food arrives. As children do they horse around, until their father says something to make them sit down. Soon after the food arrives, the husband and wife set up the fries and burgers they bought for their family. They gesture to the children to sit down properly before they receive their food. The whole family sits down together and begins to eat. Half-way through the meal, the children start getting antsy and begin standing with their food. The parents are almost finished with their meal and make sure that the children stay in the patio area until they are finished. Once everyone finished eating, the mother took the boy and girl to go wash up while the father proceeded to throw away the trash. The family reunites at the table and then proceeds to look both ways before crossing the street to their car. They drive away in a black Ford Expedition. The last group I notice inside the Jack-in-the-Box is the elderly couple to my left. I actually pulled in behind this couple while trying to find parking for the eatery. They were very cautious in the parking lot and moved very slowly. Inside the restaurant, the couple is hardly audible and exchanges few words. The husband and wife are sitting across from each other; they are fragile and grasp their hamburgers then proceed to eat slowly. Their food was brought to them by the manager and everyone in the restaurant made sure that they were well taken care of. They didn’t eat much, but it appeared to be filling to them. The elderly woman had short fading blonde hair and she wore a fancy silk blouse, while her husband was dressed in khaki’s and a white shirt with blue stripes. Their clothes were well ironed and matched rather nicely.
When I observed the Filipino ladies, it looked that they had a very god friendship. Being Filipino, it was easy for me to identify them and understanding the culture I knew that they were just a group of women who just enjoyed life for everything that is was. The fact that these women had no men with them played into the feminism we learned about in class. Instead if these women being “bound to their oppressors,” they were free of them- they were able to do whatever they wanted and it looked like the women really enjoyed the time that they spent together. So far as the relationship goes between this group, it was strictly friendship. It looked like these women maybe grew up together, or at least knew each other for a very long time. All the laughter they shared indicated to me that they either had a lot of inside jokes, or that they had a lot of catching up to do. As for the family, the father seemed to be the one in control of the household. This was a very traditional patriarchal family in the sense that it was the father who paid for dinner, and the mother who took the children to wash their hands while their father threw away the trash. They all seemed to get along and have a very strong family bond. Also, the parents were able to foresee that their children would not be able to sit in their seats for the entirety of their meal, so they decided to sit outside. They were the only customers during the time that I was there who decided to sit outside, and I felt that it was wise of them to do so. Their children were not rowdy or loud, but their decision to sit outside is a reflection of how well they know and understand their kids. The husband and wife had very good communication, playing into the traditional romance. I did not notice that one person overpowered the other to the point of fear or depression; or that one was too obsessed with the other, as was the case in Fatal Attraction. The mother did not have any characteristics of Anne Archer’s character, who was willing to kill to protect not only her child, but her way of life. Anne Archer was more monstrous than Glen Close’s character because not only did she have no remorse when she killed Close’s character but also she needed her husband to the point where she deemed it justified to kill so that she could stay with him and continue the life she was used to. The couple at Jack-in-the-Box seemed to make decisions as a team, but in the end the ultimate decision was left to the male in the relationship because he is the one who drove his family there, and paid for dinner. With the elderly couple, it was obvious since my first encounter with them that they took their time with everything they did; from entering the parking lot and carefully parking, to the meticulous creases in their clothes. The couple seemed content, nothing too extreme and they were average to the point where they seemed to almost blend into the background.
