looking for candles in corner stores.
this evening, cold, on the way to the bus stop and carrying bags of groceries, i was trying to buy chanuka candles. the coop was out: i paged and asked, and while the woman who responded recommended somewhere i could buy them, it was in the wrong direction. i kept stopping into delis, where men with many different accents repeated "hanaka candles", clearly not knowing what they were. i went out of my way a little, but after 4 places i gave up, waited for the bus, came home... and found that i had half a box or so left from last year. i lighted a yellow candle and an orange one, which might have actually been pink; it was hard to tell, and both were slightly bent. flames over my reheated soup and exciting salad.
but it made me think of all the times i have gone into delis in brooklyn, looking for candles. shabbos candles when people are coming over for dinner and you realize you're out- the urgency- or when i was just wanting to light candles, coming home late, tired and cold and wet. but they usually have shabbos candles. they always have yartziet candles because they're useful: in glass so safer, long-burning candles, the white analogue of the colored santeria-y/saint goya ones. but i don't buy yarziet candles often, though i would like to light one for my grandfather this year. i've bought the colored ones when electricity was out- in my first few days in my old apt, before they turned the electricity back on, were lit by those candles.
birthday candles, you can usually find, when you welcome the errand of going out to the corner store to buy the birthday candles, in the middle of a birthday party or potluck dinner, just to escape the heat, and get another six pack as long as you're there. pretty much every deli has birthday candles.
hanaka candles: not so much. last year i tried to buy them at a supermarket and a pharmacy on the upper west side: no dice. and ended up at a jewish bookstore, where i got the cheapy ones that were the closest to the manichevitz version of my childhood. i like the beeswax kind, sure, but also the sturdy paraffin-y ones, all garish bright colors that you get to make arrangements with.
but i got them! my own chanuke miracle: the light lasted into the next year. amazing. going to light tomorrow when i get home from epic school at 930... and cook something good.
but it made me think of all the times i have gone into delis in brooklyn, looking for candles. shabbos candles when people are coming over for dinner and you realize you're out- the urgency- or when i was just wanting to light candles, coming home late, tired and cold and wet. but they usually have shabbos candles. they always have yartziet candles because they're useful: in glass so safer, long-burning candles, the white analogue of the colored santeria-y/saint goya ones. but i don't buy yarziet candles often, though i would like to light one for my grandfather this year. i've bought the colored ones when electricity was out- in my first few days in my old apt, before they turned the electricity back on, were lit by those candles.
birthday candles, you can usually find, when you welcome the errand of going out to the corner store to buy the birthday candles, in the middle of a birthday party or potluck dinner, just to escape the heat, and get another six pack as long as you're there. pretty much every deli has birthday candles.
hanaka candles: not so much. last year i tried to buy them at a supermarket and a pharmacy on the upper west side: no dice. and ended up at a jewish bookstore, where i got the cheapy ones that were the closest to the manichevitz version of my childhood. i like the beeswax kind, sure, but also the sturdy paraffin-y ones, all garish bright colors that you get to make arrangements with.
but i got them! my own chanuke miracle: the light lasted into the next year. amazing. going to light tomorrow when i get home from epic school at 930... and cook something good.