All The Good Stuff

 

Down 87 today to the land I grew up in.  I lived more time in China. I came to love other parts of the state more.  But I still identify with the piece of geography there between the Bronx, and Greenwich CT and Putnam County.  We’re going to cross over the Mario Cuomo bridge and head to Hartsdale today.  I lived from the age of two till ten in Harrison and from then till fifteen in Pleasantville.  If I ever want to understand why my kids consider Beijing their home even though they were born here and live here now, I merely need to consider how it is I feel, driving about in Westchester County. 

A name with brio, the “Asian Supermarket Golden Village” is there in Hartsdale.  Today is the eve of Lunar New Year.  My wife and younger daughter had wanted to head all the way down to the H Mart in Queens.  ‘Twas I who suggested there must be something in Westchester.  Asian Supermarket Golden Village has lots of cool stuff and while not as spic-and-span as the H-Mart we visited down in Flushing it has a pretty good assortment of things we’ve been missing from Cathay.  A quart-sized jar of laoganma sauce?  Yes.  Pickled tamarind? A big yellow pomelo?  A can of water chestnuts?  These can call be had. 

 

And, we are all in the midst of a let’s-all-go-vege-for-six-months phase just now, so all the good stuff, like dried salty squid and juicy pork dumplings are off limits.  People inside are nearly all from China and it suddenly feels like we are operating according to different ideas of personal and public space.  In the air are loud, spring-festival folk songs.  I recognize an old melody I associate with Zhou Xuan from the 1930s.  This has a mechanical drum beat and a tinny, shrill singer.  One person who is not from China, besides myself is the gentleman whom I’d guess was from the Dominican Republic.  He’d obviously asked and been granted approval to crank merengue in his domain, behind the butcher counter. 

Driving down we’d listened to Jamie Raskin.  We’d listened as he introduced the woman who would follow him, the representative from the Virgin Islands, Ms. Stacey Plaskett, who had been his student.  She was dazzling.  All the way down we all listened and felt indignation rise.  They referenced “new” videos which I had to have explained to me by the reporters on NPR.  Eric Swalwell, spoke about cops as the brother and the son of a cop.  Joaquin Castro spoke in a clear, familial way.  And when we got home, I couldn’t make up my mind if begin getting ready for Chinese New Year as was only appropriate.  Or to dive back into this insular, American trial which was sad, predictable and yet powerful at the same time.

 

 

 

Thursday, 02/11/21