Opportune moments on the number 12

The first thing I noticed were these strange shaped pumpkins. I’d seen the women schlep her articles from the bench on Westwood and Weyburn onto the seat in the middle of the bus, then scrimmage back out the door to grab a second pumpkin.

I was in the middle of a conversation with Nivardo, when after snuggling herself into the seat with all her bags and two pumpkins she stood up and looked around the bus, then said, “Does anyone here have a camera? Can someone take a picture of me with my pumpkin?”

People looked around, in bus rider shock, amused that this older women who seemed someone nutty and normal simultaneously had had the audacity to request her fellow bus riders immortalize her beloved pumpkins with a simple canon snap.

Since it had been my first night as office photographer for the Spanish and Portuguese department blog, I happened to be traveling with my camera, at which moment I responded to the riders request with a withdrawal of my camera from it’s case. People on the bus looked around and laughed in unison and I proceeded to quickly capture the woman and her large fall fruit. As I took the picture, she posed and said, “It’s so beautiful! I planted it myself” After taking a few shots, she thanked me and asked that I send her the pictures.

I assumed this women, who I learned later is named Mama Santini, would give me an email address. The age of digital photography may or may not impress this pumpkin mama, who handed me a handwritten note with her home address and phone number. She thanked me again, and situated herself back in her seat, snuggled up with her beloved pumpkin, awaiting the development of her image.