Lullaby
At around 6:00 PM, just as the weather would start to cool, we would all line up by the window, waiting to hear the familiar tune of his cheap plastic pan-pipe; tooorut, rutooot, toorut, rutooot.
Come to think of it, it wasn’t really a tune, it was just the highs and lows produced as his lips would quickly graze over the plastic pan-pipe from left to right then from right to left, over and over again, interrupted every now and then by “Sha3rrrrrrrrr Il Banaaaaaaaaat! Yalla ya wlad, sha3rrrrr il banaaaaaaat!”
To our little ears though, it was the sweetest tune in the universe.
Excited to see him with his stick of cotton candy, we would run outside, our sweaty palms stinking like metal coins, and we would circle around him trying to bargain the highest quantity of little plastic bags that our coins could buy. Then we would sit on the sidewalk outside Teta’s house, silent and still for a few precious minutes, enjoying the soft cotton candy as it melted into our tongues, amusing at how the pale color would turn bright and hard as soon as it touched our mouths.
Baya3 Sha3er Il Banat eventually stopped coming to Shmesani, as did Baya3 il Dorayeh and Baya3 Il-Fusto2 Il 7alabi. I don’t know why they all stopped coming.
I do know though, that for many, many years, Baya3 Sha3er Il Banat’s tune would signal my favorite time of the day.
DANA
April 19, 2007 @ 7:02 pm
precious memories…really
I think the younger generation is really missing on those things. Allah y5aleelhom all the imported candies they are eating now.
who remebers 3ata 3alee arabic ice cream in the cup? and the potato chips in cones shapes (no clue about the name)?
I miss Amman
ebles
April 19, 2007 @ 7:21 pm
For whom this photo?
Roba
April 19, 2007 @ 7:26 pm
Ebles, I took this picture of some random man a few days ago outside of Jordan University.
ebles
April 19, 2007 @ 7:53 pm
it is very great…
you always surprise me because all this crazy thing you can do with your camera
Roba
April 19, 2007 @ 8:00 pm
Hehe, thanks!
7aki Fadi
April 19, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
Till this day if I see sha3r ilbanat I buy it and eat it in 0 seconds.. love the stuff, I even hide it from my daughter so I could eat it all by myself he he he .
Firas
April 19, 2007 @ 11:10 pm
I thought it’s because of winter? Yeah they never show up anymore.
Anyways, I miss most the ice cream vans! What ever happened to that?
The comments on the wall are priceless: Abu Rashid, Battalat Tefreg! lol
Rebecca
April 20, 2007 @ 12:01 am
Just yesterday I bought “Hamleh bi lira” from the guy who hauls it around l’webdeh. I love “hamleh” season! There’s also a guy who wanders around the neighborhood near my office yelling “Bayd!” at the top of his lungs, selling egg sandwiches. For the longest time it sounded to me like he was yelling “3eib!”
طفيلي(ahmad)
April 20, 2007 @ 12:45 am
I think it is unacceptable to take picture for people without permission …..I hope you asked him for permission to picture him and you are going to post his picture on internet..
yaseen
April 20, 2007 @ 2:56 am
Good old days… there’s baya3 dorai wa7ad still going through our street in shemesani, he can’t say ra2 so he yells “doyayeh doyay”, kinda funny in a cruel way ;p
but I’ve noticed a sharp drop, mainly because there’s no longer kids playing football in the street where the goal borders is the garbage can and the light post or some poor guy garage door, therefore no customers, nowadays all what those kids do is play counter strike and pool.
Roba
April 20, 2007 @ 5:40 pm
Rebecca, funny, I was eating hamleh as I was writing the post! It’s so yummy!
Tafili, he did know I was taking the picture, and I agree that it is rude.
ozz
April 20, 2007 @ 6:13 pm
sha3r il banat for me is a repeated flash from the childhood .. it’s a unique combination of place and time. my grandmother’s house in “il mukhayyam” and the summer vacation when i used to come to Jordan with my family to spend the “whole day” in the grandma house playing in “il 7akoorah”. there was also that apple coated by a sweet solid layer and with stick to hold i think its name was “3anbar” .. yes they all disappeared, but unlike you I don’t miss those stuff now!
Ayyob
April 20, 2007 @ 8:17 pm
Thats what i miss most about jordan. the guy that sells sh3r el banat, the garagesh(fried oily stuff) and the guy that goes around selling (حاملة )
Isam
April 21, 2007 @ 9:53 am
nice memories …. but i would have preferred Booza emme el shelen better than a pink piece of cotton that got smaller and smaller with time … with a dirty little baloon along in the same bag … the ultimate reward :)
hisham assi
April 21, 2007 @ 8:41 pm
at least we still find the ka3ek dudeS! i dont know what id do without them
omar
April 24, 2007 @ 7:04 am
:O
SHA3AR BANAAAAT
ANA BEDDI MENNO!
Roba please please buy me a bunch and save it up for me
3anjadd great memory! The shot is just great
I’m impressed by the last two random shots of yours ya benet! ;D
omar
Tiger
April 24, 2007 @ 11:17 pm
thx for this post amazing memories came pooring on my head becoz of it
and thank god the ka3ek dude is still there guys by the way fee ma7ala bel nazleh 3al 3abdlee be3mal ka3ek zakee kteer is it still there? I have not been to jordan in three years now and I miss it like hell:)
Isam
April 25, 2007 @ 9:17 am
Tiger : ur talkin abt sala7 el deen ??? yeah its still there …
ya wele 3ala ka3keten o ba3den argeele za3′lool be gahwet 3amoon ma3 kaset shay double …
wala fe zay 3amman bel denya …