Describe the people in the town in "The Lottery."

The people in the town are what make this story so creepy and tragic. They all seem so normal, yet they are completely okay with a lottery system that elects one of their own members to be stoned to death. That's not normal. 

When the story begins, the reader is introduced to the kids first. They are running around and being boisterous and energetic like any kids would be before a fun social gathering.  

School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, and their talk was still of the classroom and the teacher, of books and reprimands.

This social gathering will end with one of them or their parents being killed. I don't understand the happy attitudes, but that's what makes the story so scary.

Next come the descriptions of the men, women, husbands, and wives.  

Soon the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes. They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed. The women, wearing faded house dresses and sweaters, came shortly after their menfolk. They greeted one another and exchanged bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands. Soon the women, standing by their husbands, began to call to their children, and the children came reluctantly, having to be called four or five times.

Again, there is absolutely nothing odd about any of it. It paints a scene similar to something that I see before large school events like concerts, picnics, or fundraisers. Men and women are talking with members of their own sex. Men talk about "manly" stuff like tractors and women gossip. Take notice of the specific detail of what the women are wearing. They are not wearing their Sunday best. They are wearing their normal clothes. Likely, the women came straight to the lottery gathering from their work at their individual homes. That again stresses to the reader that the coming events are completely normal. 

As for a specific person in the story, I like Old Man Warner. Old Man Warner is exactly as his name implies. He's a man, and he's old. On top of that, he is the stereotypical cranky old man who thinks he's right and young folks are not. 

"Some places have already quit lotteries," Mrs. Adams said. "Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools."