Suzy Says

I’m especially glad that I took Friday off, since the weekend has been one of unmitigated gloom and, you guessed it, rain. But Friday was a sunny day nice enough to sit outdoors for coffee or lunch, so I’m glad I didn’t waste it trapped in an office all day long.

Yesterday, despite my aching and now Technicolor legs, we did some fun (non-?picerie related) shopping, browsing in used bookstores and getting a welcome to the world present for our friend Carrie’s baby, who finally decided to join us. You may remember that Carrie had Thanksgiving dinner with us and was due on Christmas Eve. But since I learned of the baby’s arrival from my brother, I don’t know anything that a girl would have asked. All I know is, she’s a girl, as-yet unnamed, was born “a couple of days ago” and Carrie had to give up on having the baby at home and went to the hospital after two days of labor. No-one can call her a quitter!

So we got the new baby a fantastic little outfit at the appropriately named Girlstuff on Polk Street. It’s an ivory flannel top, embroidered with a brown rabbit holding a carrot, with sage green pants and matching green cap (well, it is winter) embroidered with another carrot. It’s adorable. I had it gift-wrapped, so all I have to do is mail it tomorrow. I’m a big believer in gift wrapping at the store.

On our way home, we noticed that the space where the late, lamented Polk-Vallejo Market had been located and which has stood empty for 2 or 3 years now, has a new tenant. The unimaginatively named but charming Market was a staple of the neighborhood for almost 80 years. Going in there was like stepping into the past. The store was run by the same family it always had been, and the radio was always playing songs from the 1940’s and ’50’s. They kept a big box of Milk Bone at the cash, and neighborhood dogs would pop in to get a treat as they passed by, being petted and greeted by name by whoever was manning the cash at the time. They used to deliver twice a day at no extra charge if your order was $25 or more, which was wonderful. It was the kind of place where they asked you to mind the cash while they cut your watermelon in two, and when I was away and Rufus used to get sandwiches or roast chicken from the butcher counter, he always got asked if he was “batching it” (which he was).

A few years ago, the landlord more than doubled the rent, pushing the Market out after all those years. Unfortunately the family had rented and not owned it, and it was so sad to see them thrown out on the street, their livelihood gone, after serving the neighborhood for generations. No-one has filled this niche in the neighborhood. There are corner stores and fancy organic food stores, but no old-fashioned, straight up grocery store run by people who care.

So the space has been empty for a long time. And yesterday we noticed that it’s now an antique dealer. There are already two on that block alone, and three competing coffee places. Just what we needed.