Driving a Seattle Bus on Christmas Eve
by Kim Cramblet in North America , USA , Washington , Events and Festivals , Food
Photos by Uschi Gerschner.
***
Today I am cooking a breakfast roll. It is
Yugoslavian and called Poteca. I love it with the Christmas breakfast Mom used
to make with sausage, eggs, and fried apples. She would make Swedish Tea Rings
but I didn't like the nuts and dates. I always wanted cinnamon rolls. So this
roll has finely ground walnuts, brown sugar, an egg lemon extract and vanilla
with milk binding it all together and spread over a sweet roll dough rolled
paper thin and then rolled up jellyroll fashion and baked. So it is a hybrid
between Mom's and my ideal. I've got Russian teacakes in the oven as well.
Thanks to one of the riders on my bus who
listened to my story of going to Uwajimia for powdered sugar and they were all
out. She brought
me two boxes on the return trip saying; "It will too late to go
to the store when you get done here." She had got on at third and Union. The bus
filled with folks at five-forty-five Christmas Eve. Three Muslim women got on
swaddled in fine fabrics of emerald green, gold, and silver. One held a newborn
baby. The man with them wanted to know if we went to 25th and Yesler. He wore a
black suit. The black woman at the front with her Rasta multicolored knit hat
full of hair asked if we'd be at 23rd and Jackson before six. I was lingering at
the stop making sure everyone got a seat. "I should be there at 5:51 but I'm
five minutes late already." The bus was crowded and she asked me to open the
door at the next stop. She seemed a bit claustrophobic. I checked her response
to the Muslim group. She hadn't moved into the corner to make a place for them
but didn't return my gaze with any tone of note. She said I looked tired and
asked when I'd be through. I mentioned my trip to Uwajimaya for powdered sugar
and said something about making gingerbread for the first time. She was thinking
about making a pecan pie and needed brown sugar.
"No
wonder you look tired she said; you've been baking all day." I let her off at
23rd and the Muslims at 26th and took my break up at the Church in the Mt. Baker
neighborhood.
The black woman was ready and waiting at 23rd
and Jackson with two bags of groceries from Top Foods and she handed me a
plastic bag when she got on. In it two boxes of powered sugar. I thanked her and
we went on with our discussion about pecan, pumpkin and sweet potato pie. Then
Florence rode with me from seven to eleven and on the ten o'clock trip and we
picked up a stainless steel sink and some track lighting that someone had put
out on the curb. So I was good for three gifts in one night. I put the lights
behind me and sat the sink beside Florence and behind a metal pole on the seat.
A middle aged drunk soon got on and he wanted to help her install the sink. He
could do that you know? When he left he stood in front of her while she sat
there in her long red wool coat and black layered outfit and he stared at her
for a minute. She just looked back at him with her sixty-five year old pixie
smile on her face and then he left. She said; "He doesn't know I could really
make his life a living hell!" He did look at her as a woman of stability
perhaps. She is the 12 step Darhma Mom of Seattle. She could do that.
I'm getting ready for the downstairs remodel for an apartment or rooms for rent. Then maybe I can buy some time. I may have a spot for my new lights and sink. Florence is my support person for getting things done. Another gift altogether!
December 25, 2004
