Weekend Edition: The Trembling Air

March 11, 2022 CounterPunch [The Trembling Air]( by Jeffrey St. Clair A couple of decades ago, we moved into a neighborhood in our Willamette Valley mill town populated mainly by Ukrainian exiles, three extended families living in eight houses on our block. Only the children spoke much English and they were delightful. I still cherish images of them skateboarding down the street in their traditional Orthodox dress, all reds and golds, listening to Avril Lavigne and Nelly on their Walkmans. Four of the houses kept chickens, which roamed freely down the block for several years, until newer houses went up with less tolerant and more lawn-obsessed occupants. The grandmothers and great-grandmothers (the prababuskas) went for evening walks, swaddled in thick black wool coats and blue headscarves, every night, rain, sleet, or heat wave, until one fell and broke her hip. Then in a few weeks, she was back out there, being pushed down the street in a wheelchair by her grandson. Slowly we learned about each other, mostly through Anna, a woman a few years younger than us, who knocked at the door one late summer evening in 2005 and asked very politely in practiced English whether she could buy some of our apples. I told her she could pick as many as she wanted and declined the dollar bills she held out in her hand. The next morning we found a wicker basket on our porch, overflowing with zucchini, tomatoes, green peppers, and beans, harvested from Anna’s magnificent vegetable garden. [READ THE REST ON COUNTERPUNCH]( [Read More Weekend Edition Articles]( CounterPunch | 707-629-3683 | [email us](mailto:counterpunchbiz@gmail.com) | [homepage]( Connect with us [[Facebook] ]( [[Twitter] ]( [[Pinterest] ](#) CounterPunch | P.O. Box 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 [Unsubscribe {EMAIL}]( [Update Profile]( | [Constant Contact Data Notice]( Sent by counterpunch@counterpunch.org powered by [Trusted Email from Constant Contact - Try it FREE today.]( [Try email marketing for free today!](