Dear Liza,
The New Year is upon us, and all the good intentions that come with new beginnings. We have had some unseasonably dry weather of late, so Grandpa Nelson and I took one of our long walks.
We walked north through the lovely, historic Laurelhurst neighborhood, with its Craftsman style homes, century old maple trees, and complicated Christmas decorations. For a while, the bright overcast made everything look like it was being filmed in black and white.
We crossed the noisy Banfield Freeway and stopped for a snack and Cold Buster juice at Whole Foods, then continued north to one of my favorite streets in Portland: Kilckitat Street! Yes, this is the same street that Romona Quimby, the young heroine of Beverly Cleary’s stories, lived on. It still has the working class, family friendly feel it had back in the 1950s when the stories were written.
When we got to Pip’s Doughnuts and House made Chai, the first thing we noticed was that the bus stop in front of the shop had been destroyed. The metal bench and sign posts were literally laying in a heap on the curb. That looked like bad news.
Looking past that, we saw that the wall of the doughnut shop had been boarded up. More bad news.
But looking just to the left, we saw the good news. A line of people out the door, happily waiting for fresh cooked Pip’s Doughnuts. All was well, after all.
It seems that during the night, a drunk driver had veered off the street and into the shop, breaking a window but missing the door, the supporting pillar, the equipment, and even the guitar hung on the wall. It could have been a disaster, but it was mostly an inconvenience to the owners.
More good news! People love Pip’s, and hundreds came by to make sure the business continued. They are the sort of ecologically- conscious, community- centeric business that help make Portland what it is.
We enjoyed way too many doughnuts, then headed back towards home.
Our short winter day made for a pretty sunset sky at not quite 4:00, and we got home in time for leftover chili and some British Baking Show before falling into an exhausted, happy sleep.
Love,
Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 