Selling Buttons...or Badges

For the last few weeks I have been working at a street market for a local friend who ones one of the booths. A few hours every weekend I have become the unofficial Button Empress of South Brisbane. Should you ever want a button smeared with wit and cheek, come see me.

Well, South Bank or South Brisbane. I do not know the difference.

The area is a cool and busy area where a lot of restaurants live, and festivals and events occur here throughout the year. There is the artificial beach pool that takes up a large are with a boardwalk shopping area with a New Orleans feeling surrounding it. If beaches are not your thing, there is also a beautiful river walk juxtaposed next to it. There is also this weekend market where I am working that is loaded with local artisan wares, ranging from handmade bratwurst to very lovely fine art and leather belts.

Anyways, the fun thing about working at the booth every weekend is the people watching - just last night a lady came up to me and shouted unreasonably loudly if I had a button that said, "Kiss me I'm single" (to which I had to quietly admit that we did not). I am also getting a better chance to observe a bit of the more subtler nuances in the Australian culture.

The biggest surprise I have had is the reiteration of how all English-speaking folk (or maybe all Western culture) are kind of the same in tastes. I guess I was expecting some odd Australian-only cultural references on button selections...but really, the same kinds of things liked by the public is equally enjoyed in the US. With the exception of a few British shows (and a devotion to Dr. Who unrivaled by any American sub-culture), people here love popular shows like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad...as well as the assorted cool teenage bands like My Chemical Romance (they're still a thing?!). They are all for sale and bought by many. What is so curious to me is how everyone act as if their personal likes and interests are unique. They read some of the buttons as if we have taken time to stalk them and create buttons specifically meant for their eyes. Of course, we would never do that - we have to sell popular things that a whole lot of people like in order to make a profit. Maybe people forget that and think only they have discovered that one special button? Or maybe it is a human need to feel socially accepted, and seeing their interests pressed into buttons validates their belonging to a larger tribe?

I am not sure how I feel about this. And I am still not feeling great about globalization because of this outcome.

But I have misspoken. People call these things badges. Everyone calls them badges. Even the little children who just learned how to talk stumble up to the booth shouting, "BADGES!" I have been calling them buttons all of these years, not realizing that (at least here) I am truly talking about badges. People have faltered when I say "buttons' and I have to quickly correct myself before the buttons badges magically transform into gnomish items used to fasten vests.

Another thing I seem to say strangely while I work is the word "baggies". You know, the things into which you put small merchandise. Whenever I ask if someone wants a baggy, I get met with chuckles before a response. I guess they only think of the word for when referring to drug storage. I mean, similar bags are used for drugs in the US (so I have been told), but they are baggies! They are little bags! In a country determined to reword everything into something cuter and with a "y" ending, I am surprised the term "baggy" is lost on them.

Finally, a term I recently learned is "Calm your farm". I had to ask my Aussie friends about this because it left me baffled. They were amused at the very phrase, too. Who knows, maybe it's not just Australian. It means to chill out...but I keep thinking, are not farms often very calm places? How can you calm them more? But I still liked it a bit...I shall try to integrate this into my daily life.