Friday, April 27, 2007

Memorias From Titi Betsy

(Ariel and Omar)

"As things come to mind
;

Dont forget Yin and Yang (the cats)
I had my bridal shower there;
Titi yvette used to dress the windows according to the seasons. One time she painted a nativity secene, very beautiful.

Customer
s :
Carmen la de Tito (Tio Tito's mom), Good luck and love
Carmen la de Benny, Good luck and love
Carmen Iglesia, who had some spirits and loved to hang out. She was the cook for the local church.
Carmen Pajarito, Luck and love and would come to the botánica with her parakeets

El penny de la suerte! Cost $1.00 and they sold like wildfire
.

Marian's favorite customer "one-purple-candle-please" this was a black man who drove a Manitoba delivery truck and every friday, sure as clockwork, he would come in and ask for one purple candle. At first no one knew what he was saying, but Marian who knew little English at the time, figured it out. From then on he was Marian's customer, he would park the truck and his candle was at the counter by the time he got to the door!

Los baños de la suerte for Christmas and New Year's a set of 3 baths to be taken on Christmas eve, Christmas day and NewYear's eve. "

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I am thoroughly enjoying reading Betsy's memories of the botanica. They reinforce the importance of what you're doing, Selina; preserving this facet of your cultural identity.

Anonymous said...

:) one-purple-candle-please man. reading that history/description of store-culture makes me feel happier than i should about small-skim-latte-woman, muffin-with-butter-on-side-woman, and even bagel-and-lox man.

i love this blog, selina!

Unknown said...

I REMEMBER THE LUCKY PENNIES!!! i remember running my fingers through the pennies pretending to be scrooge mcduck (disney's afternoon was still big then). Later my hands would stink and taste bad.

Selina said...

Jaime, I remember that too. I can still imagine the way my hands would taste...all worth it to feel as rich as Scrooge McDuck!