Day: December 24, 2016

The Christmas Treasure

I’ve probably posted about this before but it is my most favorite Christmas memory, so I remember it again.

I was young, don’t know how young, but I don’t believe I was attending school yet. There were three children. My little sister, now a double grandmother, was the baby. She was at least toddling.

Dad was stationed at the Pentagon, I think. We were living in Virginia. Christmas was coming. We, the children, were very excited. I remember that the basement was finished as a game room. Along the stairs going up was a laundry room. Off that laundry room was another small room. In that small room, my older sister and I found the Christmas treasure. She had actually found it but left me to explore it.

Oh, the toys. I remember my excitement and delight. There were so many toys in there.

Then – disaster. We were caught. Mom came in to do laundry. She was forever doing laundry, transferring clothes from a basket to the washer, from the washer to a dryer, or to lines to dry, then fluffing, ironing and folding, and carrying them off and putting them away, returning with more. That and cooking seemed to consume all her hours.

My sister and I knew our exploration was a risk. My older sister was supposed to be the sentry. Clearly she’d failed and could no longer be trusted.

Mom pulled us from the room, locking the door and lecturing us about not getting anything for Christmas. I wasn’t certain that she was telling me the truth. She was Mom. Mom was my protector and saint. But she always told the truth.

Didn’t she…?

The wait until Christmas was agonizing. Beautiful, white thick snow fell, invigorating our hopes that Santa would still bring us something. I don’t remember going to bed but I remembered waking up. I could hear bells, I swear to all I hold dear. They were jingle bells. Rushing to a window, I heaved it up and peered into the sky.

Frigid air blew in. Thick snow obscured everything. Santa could have been out there but you could never tell with that heavy snow coming down. I tried leaning out to look up on the roof. Everyone knows Santa lands on the roof.

Commotion below drew my attention. The front lights were on, illuminating the snow filled front yard. And there was Mom and Dad going through the snow, carrying things from the car. I think I was excited and yelled something about Santa Claus.

We were noticed then and ordered back to bed. I think Mom returned to enforce the order and close the window.

But, oh what a magic. I still believe Santa was out there somewhere, at least on that night.

 

6

The Boom

My dressing was just completed. I was visiting with the tailless black panther, Boo Radley , in the master suite. He was enjoying the attention. Just as I presented him a catnip offering on his favorite toy, a loud boom interrupted from another part of the house.

“Oh, fuck,” I heard from my wife.

Not good omens.

I went out. “What’s the word out he — ”

No more was needed. She’d been blending the day’s smoothie. Something had gone awry. Raspberry-pomegranate smoothie decorated the kitchen’s hardware floor. Spatters continued up the walls and wooden cabinets. The stainless steel refrigerator had taken a large hit. More hits were found on its stainless steel brethren, the dishwasher and stove. A puddle had settled on the dark granite top.

I wondered, what would Dexter tell me about this spatter pattern?

My wife, looking forlorn, was in the middle of the mess. Smoothie rolled down her jean legs. “What’s the best way to clean this up?” she asked without looking at me.

Cleaning wasn’t hard with a methodical approach, cleaner, some paper towels and rags. It took but ten minutes. The worse of it: the day’s smoothie rations were gone. Enough remained for her breakfast smoothie but there was naught for our lunches.

The best part: a raspberry-pomegranate smoothie explosion leaves the house with a great fragrance.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

This song, from 1985, was a friend’s favorite. He was part of our military ‘circle of singers’, so it was incorporated in the closing part of our parties.

We were stationed at Onizuka Air Station in Sunnyvale, California. We were the people inside the Blue Cube, helping to watch and guard space. I was the Command Post Superintendent during my first few years and lived on Moffett Base Housing (close to Hanger One) not far from many others of my unit. We loved throwing summer parties to celebrate holidays and special events. They included volleyball games and grew big and popular, including people form outside my org.

We tended to end the parties with the circle sing of core members. We were just in a circle belting out a song at the top of our lungs as the stereo blasted away.

For one memorial Labor Day celebration, all the neighbors had attended, eaten, played and partied, so noise wasn’t a problem…in the immediate area. But the party became quite loud, affecting people a few streets over. They called the security police to complain, and those esteemed officers came to our door. Fortunately, the commander of the SP squadron, along with the acting base commander, were in attendance at our party, participating in our circle of song. We turned the music down and behaved ourselves and all were happy.

We had great times in those days.

Here’s Tears for Fear with ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’. 

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