Norma's Homemade Banana Bar

January Sixteen

PROMPT January 16, 2022

READ IT IN THE SUNDAY PAPERS

At one time I wanted to be a photojournalist. I thought I had an eye for photography, plus I wanted to be famous.
After a while, I realized that if I was a photojournalist I would have to travel to places that don't have proper bathrooms
or food that I like. Then it struck me that I would probably have to work long hours and have to get up early and shave... that sort of thing.
So yeah, thank God I gave up on that dream.

Let's pretend that we are photojournalists today and you have 24 hours to take a photo and write a story to go with it.
In case that sounds like too much work, I've included a photo I took several years ago, so you could just write a story to go along with that photo.

May 20, 2020

There was a huge cloud of smoke as we turned the corner. Wednesday, May 20, 2020 at 11:00 AM. I remember well. It started off innocently enough. We always volunteer on Wednesday to deliver ‘Meals on Wheels’. We deliver at least twenty meals around town.

As we headed down the west side of town, there was a large cloud of smoke. We delivered to Marie, to Donna, then by the time we got to Karen, that large cloud was everywhere, the fire siren had gone off a few times, and we knew something big was happening.

Seems the ‘Vintage Cafe’ was on fire. And the vacant building next to it. And the vacant block on the other side was in danger of catching on fire as well.

We hurried to get the rest of the deliveries done, then I grabbed my little camera and ‘hot footed’ it down to Main Street to get some shots.

The blaze was well underway by the time I got there. The ‘Vintage Cafe’ was no more. The real battle was to save the vacant building to the south and the occupied buildings to the north.

Sad, but, oh well. The food was good, but you waited an hour sometimes to be served. They couldn’t get help, the prices were too high. The atmosphere was fun, but it was cold as ice in there in the winter.

I heard that the owners are still fighting with insurance. They moved away from the area and won’t rebuild. Someone in the community wanted to build on the site. But after almost two years, that hasn’t happened yet.

The space is still unfilled. There is a high fence around a big hole in the ground. Another blight on our downtown area. Darn.