Walls And Glass

Sunday, Nov. 09, 2008 - 1:28 a.m.

When I was a young girl living in Yuba City, the boundaries of my solo neighborhood travels included my Gran's house on one end of my territory, and Warren's Market on the other end.

Warren Hall, the man who owned the store during my childhood, just passed away at 87. I can remember his face and the sound of his voice, but the most vivid memory for me about the store has to do with scent.

There was a persistent smell in Warren's Market, not an unpleasant one at all, but whenever I smell it again, it takes me back -- I can remember the smell of cardboard boxes, and the coolant from the freezer we'd dig through for popsicles. The rack of comic books also smelled nice, and the gum machine there dispensed square Chiclet shaped gum instead of round gum, with my guess as to why being so that any gum that got dropped by smaller hands wouldn't roll all the way out the store doors and down the road to Mexico. When that little gear thing opened up to let the gum out into the dispenser chute, there was always a whiff of fruit and mint.

Funny, the things you remember when you start trying.

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In the middle of Autumn of 1989, I was travelling with friends from Chico to Fresno to attend a science fiction and comics convention, and I had actually had enough foresight to bring my Sony Watchman with me so I could try and keep up with my soaps. I had been trying to change the channels, when on the screen, I saw people laughing and dancing and spraying the contents of bottles all over one another -- while standing on top of the Berlin Wall.

The convention we drove to was full of fans who wanted to talk about what had happened.

And the 19th anniversary of the fall is today.

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This is also the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, which to historians signified the beginning of the Holocaust of the Jewish people.

I've often heard George W Bush compared to Hitler, which is a laugh. I'm sure all of those innocent people who were gassed or shot in the head for their etnicity and religious beliefs wouldn't have minded living in the United States with Dubya as a president.

I also hear an even stupider thing from the far right, and that is that our language, and our borders, and our culture are all compromised now due to the high level of illegal immigration that takes place into the USA.

Really? We won't be as American if a few extra beaners are breathing our air?

Okay. Go ask the Jews who survived the Holocaust, who were torn from their homes, who spent time in concentration camps clad in garments worn over and over again by previous owners who had died or been killed, who owned not a single possession, who had their gold teeth pulled for their value and who didn't even know what happened to the rest of their family members...

Ask THEM if they felt any less Jewish when their ordeal was over.

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All right, there ya go.

Have a good Sunday.

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