Bathroom fixtures

Well the story ended on a happy note, or at least the bathroom light fixture is back in place. One of the little known facts about pregnancy is that you become very clumsy. Awkward and clumsy that is. Not only is your weight distribution all wrong, but dizziness and overwhelming feelings about life and mortality crowd your every waking thought.

I had a Raymond Carver day finding a 1950s light fixture for the bathroom to replace the one I broke whilst trying to "clean" it. Yes, the furious nesting process has begun. Do you need your closets reorganized? Back to Carver, I rambled all over town with the cracked ceiling fixture in my shakey hands. I was turned away by ten different hardware stores including Home 'Despot'. Finally someone mentioned an antique fixture place on the corner of Wilton and Melrose. I've driven by that corner a million times since moving to L.A. and never noticed the little white house. Old Joe and his wife Carmelita (names have been changed to protect the innocent) sit on the front porch and wait for people to pull up. Then Joe painstakingly gets up leaning on to his cane and asks if he can help. Before I realize what is happening Joe dips his hands into the plastic bag holding the glass shards of the light fixture. I quickly pull it away from him when I discover he is mostly blind and has to feel a fixture to identify it. "Don't you worry about me. Let me see what you've got there," he says then disappears among the crowded shelves only to return moments later with a good match. Carmela does not bother to leave her seat until it seems like you might be buying something, then she appears behind the cash (only) register and handwrites a receipt.

I have not gone back to Wilton and Melrose for fear that the house does not really exist.

Posted by Molli at August 01, 2002 10:20 AM