My redneck liberal friend

'Grannie Annie' Trail shops for parts for her "protestant prayer beads." (Courtesy photo)

Grannie Annie and I are back visiting the land of the "fruits and nuts" spending some time with our friend Jimmy the Democrat.

Actually Jim the former department head of Industrial Arts at Merced College here in California and I are working on my son's 1941 Mercury Club Coupe "hotrod project."

We are long- time friends and enjoy a bit of ribbing each other about our political convictions. Neither can understand how the current gentleman that occupies the White House got elected because Jimmy seemingly is the only one in the world that admits voting for President Obama.

Jim chides me for being unable to sleep well at night from worrying about our country's future. He tells me that being a Democrat (or is that democrat?) he has no such worries; things will work out just fine.

He may well have a point because from the days of the New Deal and the initiation of Social Security the Democrats fiscal policy has gotten them by. Spend the Social Security trust fund, borrow and spend and worry not for tomorrow. Now Obama and the Democrats "Affordable Care Act" is about to bail out the insurance companies with taxpayer money. What can go wrong?

Several days ago in the interest of marital bliss and harmony, Grannie Annie led me into rare territory for a flatlander.

Shopping for a bargain on crafting supplies, specifically beads, she (and Garmin GPS) took us into the middle of commercial Los Angeles. Ten bucks to park our SUV.

Street parking, nigh impossible to find, controlled by parking meters that accepted credit cards or cash, paper bills or large coin. Small shops stuffed floor to ceiling with specialty goods. In her quest, the shop had every kind of bead imaginable, wood, plastic, stone, semi-precious stone, silver, gold, and every color in between. Talk about sensory overload and she loved it!

It was a pleasant eighty degrees temperature and the sidewalks were busy with a polyglot of humanity. Young and old I noted the full range of skin color and people mainly dressed in western style clothing. I noted Sikhs of Pakistan, Hindu from India, colorful flowing robes from Africa, severe plain styles from former Soviet territories and more from places of which I'd probably never heard. My ears are a bit weak but I also heard languages spoken unrecognizable for me. For this longtime people watcher it was a wonderful brush with a broad swath of humanity. And yes there were also a few of the tattooed, pierced, weird tonsorial styled and oddly dressed individuals normally glimpsed only in the movies present therein real life. I noted one couple the male half I can only describe as a capon escorting a nice looking, normally dressed, blonde lady that just had to be his sister as no self-respecting lady would venture forth in public on the arm of such an odd individual. But then again maybe "it" wasn't even of the female gender. Hollywood!

It became obvious to the shop manager (owner?) that Grannie was intent on spending serious money and a delightful young female clerk was promptly assigned. I noted the pretty Latina switched effortlessly from speaking English to Spanish as she addressed several customers.

Visiting with the somewhat rotund shop owner I found that he had emigrated from his native Egypt. Grannie's intended role for the beads she was buying being to make "protestant prayer beads" I enquired as to the possibility that the brown skinned black haired gentleman might be Christian. He proudly admitted that he was. I asked "Copt" and he said "Yes"!

Any astute observer of world affairs will note that the year 2013, just now ending, has been especially hard on Coptic Christian believers. The Mid-East, home of Christ whose season we are celebrating as you are reading this on the 8th day of Christmas, is being forcibly depopulated of Christians. In Egypt Coptic churches are burned and Coptic believers are being forced to leave or be murdered. On Christmas day last week 38 Christians in Iraq were killed with car bombs. When we invaded Iraq Christians numbered 1.4 million, today only some 500,000 are still living in that land of tolerance.

My shop owner spoke that yes the persecution of his fellow believers was true but, surprising to me, he said "Such sad events strengthened his people." He then went on to explain that in the L.A. area there was a sizeable Coptic Community numbering to over a hundred churches. He also noted that there was a second large Coptic Community in, he thought, New Jersey. Amazing to me as I had never knowingly met a Copt. Welcome to the USofA.

After some two hours of making choices Grannie's appetite for bead supplies was sated. Either that or her money ran out so the supplies were paid for and sacked up to leave. We stashed the largess in the car and set out on foot in search of lunch.

Ala Food Channel on TV, Grannie noted several "food trucks" within the couple of blocks we happened to shop. Now these weren't the small two-wheeled carts, those were also present, we are talking modern pickup chassis, fancy chrome wheels and lots of specialized stainless steel bright work for the kitchen. The fare was mainly large hot dogs wrapped in bacon and grilled right there before ones eyes. Served on a large bun slathered with mayo, mustard, ketchup and a grilled jalapeño, your choice. The other popular item was either pita bread or a tortilla piled high with Mexican style salad and salsa items. All was served on paper plates with plastic ware utensils. Stand and eat it out of hand.

Well now, those two items are checked off the bucket list. The year 2013 is coming to a close. The citrus crop here in the San Joaquin Valley is late but bountiful and succulent. Wishing you all a Happy New Year.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail