CHRISTMAS FEVER

pictures by Adam Walker

A fever burns up in my head as the snow is finally falling breathlessly around Ocean Parkway. I cough and splutter between shuffles to the kitchen to boil up a fresh cup of green tea and shuffle back to bed to read my a book or jot down an idea.

But this is not a sympathy post by all means. This is to tell you what a real Christmas is like on the borders of Little Russia.

Luckily I found a friend who a friend who matched my self imposed solace and we decided to cycle down to Coney Island. We wandered along the boardwalk gawping at the freaks and gangsters that seem to populate this area in such arctic conditions. The sea was wide and dark and I could see the snow cloud moving across the Atlantic. There were groups of Russian men smoking and fishing on the pier and young families chasing birds and riding bikes and a few bikers in their leather chaps and tasseled jackets wandering and taking pictures.

In summer this place is packed full of city dwellers escaping the heat and others seeking the dark revels of a seaside resort. It has such an eery quality to it. The huge fun fair wheel still and looming over the desolate beach. The rides coated in bubble wrap to protect from frost and birds. Everything boarded up, shuttered pulled tightly down. Everything facing you silent. Even the people look at you silently, not knowing your language and surprised that you'd be here at such a time.

We stopped by a deli on the way to the station to grab a Christmas lunch bagel and off we went to the cinema. The film we watched was True Grit, the new Cohen Brothers film-

To most of you who enjoyed a traditional Christmas with lots of meat and potatoes and sizzling christmas pud and port and the whole deal must think that I had a pretty unconventional festive day. But alas, this way of celebrating is past down the generations in the Jewish community (as I have been told) as the only way to celebrate his lord's birthday. And of course the film must be followed by a Chinese takeout which we added just for good measure.