Tidy up Time!

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.
Just like the ones I used to know.
Where the tree tops glisten, and children listen,
To hear......" HOLD IT!!

Enough already! The party's over! It was great while it lasted and I have no regrets but Santa and Father Time have left the building and they took baby Jesus with them. Time to pick it up, pack it up, tear it down and haul it away. Time to "untrim" that tree and "undeck" those halls - yank down those boughs of holly and stuff them in a green garbage bag. Put all those Christmas CDs and DVDs away for another year - and if you still have a VCR it is time to rewind. Put down that last piece of fruitcake - put it down! Dump that semi-curdled eggnog down the sink and don't even think about drinking the rest from the carton!
Time to vacuum, scrub, sweep and shovel Christmas back where it belongs. The tree that has been gracing your home for a month or so has to go sometime so why not now? Careful - remember the fake ones go back into their shrouds in the basement and the real ones get hauled outside.

In other words it is tidy up time, folks and I don't like it any more than you but somebody has to do it. But just look on the bright side - in about 11 months we get to do it all over again! Now get back to work - that trash ain't gonna haul itself to the curb.

Larry, Moe, Curly, Mac and Julie.

The song asks "What are you doing New Year's, New Year's Eve?"... and here is my answer.

Everybody celebrates New Year's Eve in different ways - hosting house parties, bar-hopping or going out to movies and fancy dress balls. But forget all that stuff! Forget Guy Lombardo, forget Dick Clark and Rockin' New Years Eve. This year my number one choice is to spend the evening with my wife, and coincidentally, best friend Julie - watching the 3 Stooges New Years Eve Marathon! For some eyeball poking, pie throwing, head knocking fun you just can't beat the Stooges! And not just the old grainy black and white Stooges but new digitally remastered mayhem. As always I wish all the best to my more exciting and socially ambitious friends and family who no doubt will be out on the town dressed up fine and twisting the night away. Have fun folks but don't stay out too late - remember, nothing good ever happens after 1 AM. On second thought, what the heck - it's New Years Eve - stay out until 3.

My New Year wish is that 2010 brings you nothing worse than a few head knocks, a poke or two in the eye and if you are lucky - a pie in the face. I will be thinking of you all as I relax in my new Christmas pajamas and cook up some shrimp on the barbie. Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk and Happy New Year to all!

A Handshake from Arthur

As you may know, I deliver Meals on Wheels every Sunday and have been for about three years now. In doing so you get to know your regular clients in various small ways - their schedules, needs and preferences etc. These "clients" (for lack of a better term) come and go over time for a variety of reasons. Some move away or recover from an illness and no longer require meals delivered.

Meals on Wheels provides services to a wide range of individuals: wealthy, poor, disabled, sick or just old and alone. If you can't prepare a meal for yourself it doesn't matter, everyone needs to eat. That is what I like about the organization - it is a non-judgmental service available to anyone who requires it. It is not free, however those in need may have their cost subsidized in some way.

One of these clients is Arthur. I am just a driver and don't deal with the specifics of each customer's situation so I am not sure of his story but I suspect it is not a good one. When I first delivered to him he lived in an older but fairly decent apartment building, in fact it was a building I used to live in. I hadn't delivered to Arthur for several months until recently when he showed up again on my delivery schedule. However he now lives in a sordid downtown rooming house. A deplorable place that a decent landlord would be ashamed to own. But I guess these tenants need someplace to live although they are only a step away from being homeless.

I have been delivering to Arthur for several weeks now - and it is not a very pleasant place to go. He is up three sets of stairs - each one more narrow than the last until you reach a small landing with a door that opens on a bed - Arthur's home. As I delivered his meal today I met Arthur in the hallway. He asked if I would leave it outside his room up at the top of the stairs which I did. As I was leaving he offered me his hand in a surprisingly firm and warm handshake and wished me a Happy New Year. His wish was sincere and that is why I am writing about it.

I understand that Arthur's plight is known to those who deal with people in his social situation and that there is hope that he will be provided with better living conditions at some point. I hope so. I like Arthur and I hope he has a Happy New Year too.

Christmas Blog 1961

It's Christmas! It finally arrived! I waited all year and it's Christmas again and it's almost over...

I went to bed last night at 8 o'clock after watching a scary movie called A Christmas Carol - but it turned out OK because Mr. Scrooge was nice in the end. I didn't want to go to bed but Mom made us go. I wanted to stay up and look at the tree - we have blinking lights this year and lights that bubble when they heat up. My brother Bobby and I didn't even try to sleep at first - there was so much to talk about. Finally we fell asleep and woke up when we knew it MUST be morning - but it was only 12:30 at night! It felt like morning would never come.

But it did and you should see our tree after Santa came - gifts covered the whole living room floor. We even got a toboggan big enough for all of us.

This year we opened gifts from oldest to youngest and my sister Jacqui went first so it seemed like forever until I got to open my presents. Bobby had to go last which is hard for a little kid but next year he is first.

I got a Jon Nagy Learn to Draw Kit, a really neat ballpoint pen set , a real Timex watch, a dartboard, a friction car and box of Lifesavers from Grammie.
My sisters all got these big dolls that all look the same, and hair combs and other girl stuff. I am glad I am a boy. Bobby got a Give-a-Show projector - I can't wait until we can watch cartoons on the wall.
Mom and Dad said they don't want presents anymore because they are grown ups. I hope I still want presents when I am old.
Anyway - this is the best Christmas ever! Now we have to wait a whole year until it comes again. I can hardly wait for Christmas 1962!

A Small Glimmer of Hope (Part 1)

I originally wanted to call this story "Toyland" but as it took shape I soon realized it was about more than that. It turns out that the theme of my story this year as the title suggests, is more about hope - and I will get around to that topic eventually. But before I do let me "set the stage" so to speak and bear with me if I seem to stray....I think by now that everyone knows the story of the Grinch and how he tried to stop Christmas from coming, right? Sure you do. And the Grinch has now become a beloved part of our Christmas tradition. But did you know that my mother beat him to it by about 30 years? Does that shock you? Well it should. After all, who would call their own mother a Grinch? Certainly not me. And please note that I am not saying that my mother was a Grinch, or that she actually did stop Christmas. Far from it! But she did have that power and she wasn’t afraid to use it if the situation called for it. Let me explain…

It must have been stressful raising five kids in the fifties when money was scarce – and it must have been five times as stressful as Christmas rolled around. But fortunately for Mom there was a way to deal with the imminent arrival of Christmas and make your children behave at the same time. And that was simply to STOP CHRISTMAS FROM COMING! And that is what Mom did – or almost did, every year. Of course Dad did not have any part in this yearly tradition - in fact I think he believed Mom could stop Christmas from coming too. Remember - mothers didn't usually earn the money and pay the bills in those days but they certainly made sure they were paid. And that is what Mom feared as Christmas approached - the bills that came after Christmas. Wouldn't it be nice to avoid thinking about all those bills for a little while longer AND keep the children quiet at the same time? But how? How? Now I think you see where I am going....
If there was a sibling squabble that got out of hand – no Christmas this year! A bad report card – no Christmas this year! Messy bedroom or chores not done – no Christmas this year. Not very creative – but certainly effective. I don’t know about my brothers and sisters but I was a gullible lad and I truly believed she could do it. Of course she could – mothers had a lot of power in those days. I seem to recall living under the threat of no Christmas every year from September until well into December depending, I suppose, on the family economic situation at the time. But surely Mom would relent and let Christmas take its natural course wouldn't she? It was best not to take any chances so why not clean your room and be on your best behavior and wait for that small glimmer of hope.... (to be continued)

A Small Glimmer of Hope (Part 2)

As Christmas drew dangerously near and despite the dire outlook there was always a small glimmer of hope when the Sears Christmas Wish Book arrived in early November. Those of you reading this who are of a certain age will remember like me the absolute joy of that book – before they went and ruined it of course. For one thing - it didn’t arrive with the other junk mail thrown on your front lawn in late August! Somehow it appeared as if by magic in early November at just the perfect time, when kids were starting to dream about what they wanted for Christmas and couldn’t quite decide. The Wishbook filled that need quite nicely – now your dreams came alive on the page in living color! And let me add that the Wishbook was different in those days.....

First of all it was huge! Massive! A kid could hardly take it all in – but thankfully it was divided up into convenient sections for easy wishing. Girls section – I was a boy so nothing there. Baby section – boring!! Clothing and jewelery sections – kids actually wanted these for Christmas? Well maybe a Timex watch but that is another story. Then there was the reason for the whole thing – TOYS FOR BOYS! Cars, trains, helicopters, racing sets and ..... GUNS!! Cowboy guns. BB guns. Machine guns. Space guns! My how times have changed. Maybe some would say that all those so called "war toys" were a bad influence but I haven't shot anyone or invaded any countries yet. But for me, the best toys of all were the pedal cars – don’t even get me started on pedal cars. I am only slightly ashamed to admit that I used to envy my little disabled cousin because he had one. It didn't matter to me that he couldn't walk and never would - he had a pedal car! I wanted a pedal car more than anything in the world - and just between you and me - I still do. If only they still made them in my size!

But the Wishbook was not about greed - at least not for me. It was a pleasant way to wile away the hours as Christmas loomed in the distance and the wishing was the best part of all. I remember spending many happy hours lying on the floor with my brother deciding what we wanted for Christmas - each one out-wishing the other. Of course we didn't really want all those things we wished for - the fun was in the wishing not the wanting. The Wishbook was practical too - a clever parent could have a careful look at it and see the folded down page corners and know pretty well what to buy for each child. Almost as reliable as a letter to Santa Claus. But there was something even better than the Wishbook as Christmas approached - a place you could go that was as close as a kid could get to Christmas without traveling to the North Pole....(to be continued)

A Small Glimmer of Hope (Part 3)

Toyland! The name says it all - and a visit to Toyland was another small glimmer of hope that Christmas would indeed arrive after all. Even the name still has magical powers to me. The memory of toys - real toys (not computer games and DVDs) is as big a part of Christmas as Santa Claus himself. The "real" Toyland of course existed mostly in the imagination - and Toys R Us or the toy department at Wal-Mart do not count, they are just stores. Toyland only existed at Christmas and was infinitely more magical than that. I don't even remember any of the toys there although I am certain there were trains and dolls and purple stuffed elephants. Just like the WishBook was about the wishing and not the wanting - Toyland was not about the toys but about being there. Some might say that Toyland did not actually exist - that it was not real. Well I am here to tell you that it was as real as Christmas itself. And for those of you who don't believe in things of the heart, those of you who seek proof - I have proof. It was located upstairs at Stedman's Department Store in Woodstock, New Brunswick. It was real, I was there, I saw the sign. But alas - as they say in the song Toyland - "Once you leave it's borders, you can ne'er go back again". We all have to leave Toyland but I am not so sure that you can't go back... if only for a glimpse.

Now on with my story... and the happy ending. You didn't think I would write a nasty Christmas story did you? The truth is that Mom actually made our Christmas even better by subjecting us to a little reality. She didn't pull any punches and made it quite clear that there was slim hope that they could scrape up enough money for all the gifts we might desire. But did that stop us from wishing? No way - we had the Wish Book! And we had Toyland....
Of course as Christmas drew closer Mom's predictions became less and less severe. "Maybe" started to replace "No" in her vocabulary more and more and we started to believe that Christmas just might actually come again, just like it did last year! Maybe we would get a tree again after all - a small one just in case a few presents arrived from relatives, we would have a place to put them.

Well - as you have probably guessed by now, Christmas always did arrive despite Mom's yearly predictions to the contrary. And I believe it was all the better for it. After all - where is the fun in a sure thing? Along with all the toys from the Wish Book and Toyland, our Christmas came with a little risk and it made the day all the sweeter when it finally arrived. Of course as time went by and we all grew up there was less for Mom to fear as Christmas approached. Part time jobs, babysitting money and paper routes all helped to spread more Christmas around the house. And wouldn't you know it - even when we were all adults Mom would still buy us small presents - little wind up toys were her particular favorite. And just for a moment on Christmas morning when we opened those small gifts - there it was again, that small glimmer of hope - Toyland.
Merry Christmas to all - and may you continue to see those small glimmers of hope all year long.