It’s been an odd few weeks in Seattle, it seems I moved into the American epicentre of the Coronavirus pandemic – some guys have all the luck.
Today, Seattle is now in utter lockdown, I can’t help but feel its all a bit over the top I have a feeling lots of people are pretending to be more anxious than they actually are, in order to get their employers to furnish them with a laptop and let them do the nine to five, at home, in their favourite pyjamas
Nevertheless, the highways are hideaways, the centre of town now merely caters for bags that swirl in the wind and the shop shelves hang wistful like a mausoleum afternoon
It’s even been banded about on social media, newsprint media and worldwide television media… Due to the Billy Ray virus, we should no longer partake in the age-old custom of “shaking hands”.. Even though the custom has been around since medieval times.. Surviving civil unrest, wars, the great plague and the career of Bonnie Langford.
I think it would be a shame if the custom died out, if only through fear of it being replaced by the French habit “Faire la bise” or social hugs – I’m all for hugging a loved one, but have always failed to divine why ANYONE would want to hug a stranger.
I remember around 1981,
The council estate I grew up on had several people in rattle vans that would plod around and push their products from .. There was a mobile library, a sweet van, a fish van (P U K E), a chip van and also a couple of soda pop pushers, who would sell their one-litre delights, come pink-skinned summer.
What’s curious to me in 2020 is the name of the pop being pushed was Corna.
Could it be, it was these sunny afternoon frizz pop slingers that were the real genesis of the modern-day killer?
It’s worth maybe nothing, but I will note that one of the Corna delivery boys had three nipples.
The tough and tumble kids would play football on the grass, then stop their game and say “Look it’s three nipples”
If I was nearby, I’d run home to the safety of my bedroom. I didn’t know if his spare nipple was a symbol of something more sinister.
More than that the thought of having three nipples made me anxious .. I didn’t know what to do with the two I had.
Despite COVID-19, I have managed to scout around Seattle and have found another area I like….Magnolia.
It’s only a mile away from where I live – basically, I walk out the front door and over a bridge (see picture)
It’s, rather, expensive there but is one of those Whistle Stop Cafe type villages-Lewes, in the UK, kind of, has that kinda feel, also.
That is, if Whistle Stop Cafe was in the Northwest and populated by lots of Catholics and Jews-I’ve come to notice, nearly, all my fave parts of the world are Catholic and/or Jewish
In Magnolia, the views are fantastic and the houses range from bungalows to Parasite style modernism.
It manages to keep alive that sense of white picket fence 50s Americana- toy town-style Fire stations, garden furniture and so on.
Magnolia, Is where my wife used to own a home, which is probably worth a million now…
I try to be supportive with a “well, money isn’t everything ..You like romance and adventure “
However, if I were her I’d take legal action against certain British pop stars and authors, for bending her mind enough to give all that up.
Speaking of The Wife, she said last night (after I explained why getting up early doesn’t agree with me)
“You people from working-class stock are meant to be hardy but really you are wimps, you can’t cope with anything”
I advised most are hardy.. Unfortunately, her Quality Street selection was one of the softer centres.
She didn’t laugh, I also got the distinct impression she would never buy Quality Streets again.
The end
Diarist 