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| A Five Speed Schwinn Stingray...……….coolest bike ever! |
As I am starting this blog Christmas eve is less than an hour away. It brings to mind a line from the Christmas carol Silver Bells...….."soon it will be Christmas day". This will be my 60th one, and while I can't remember the first couple, and other memories run together, they've all been special because they have always been centered around family. Being with our families has always been so important that in the 36 Christmas's Beth and I have spent as husband and wife we have never had Christmas morning in our own house. There's nothing hard about keeping that streak going now that we haven't had a house for a few years.
One of the most commonly uttered phrases these days seems to be "it just doesn't feel like Christmas". I'm not really sure why this is true. I think there are a plethora of reasons and I'm not going to waste my time or yours trying to dissect and analyze them.
I'm feeling a little reflective and nostalgic as I'm sitting here so I'm going to turn back the hands of time and share a bit about Christmas as a kid in the fabulous little town where I grew up, Mulberry, Florida (population 2,500 and one traffic light).
I can't remember the exact year, it would have been around 1967 or so. Which would have made me about 10 years old. In Mulberry at that time unless your last name was Badcock (owners of a chain of furniture stores) your family was middle class at best. As a matter of fact, I don't think any of our families leaned towards "upper middle class" but resided closer to the low end. What my family and all my friends families lacked in money they made up for with love, laughter and a strong sense of community. Just let word of someone being real sick, or that someone had passed away, and fried chicken, baked hams and casseroles would start showing up at the house of the stricken or deceased. Now that's taking care of one another!
Christmas morning in Mulberry was a magical time. In our house, after a pretty sleepless night, the lights would usually be on somewhere around 5:00-5:30. We'd be up at that hour anyway, but we also needed an early start because often times my dad would have to work Christmas day. He worked for the railroad as a train dispatcher (think of it as an air traffic controller but for trains instead of planes). He would famously say "just because it's Christmas doesn't mean the trains will stop running". If they were running, somebody had to tell them where to go or there would be a real mess. He would enjoy the time with us, make sure everything had batteries and was working properly before heading off to the office. He would usually manage to get all the trains pointed in the right direction by early afternoon. That's when we'd all reconvene for our traditional Christmas meal and more family time.
Rounding the corner into the living room on Christmas morning was always special. There would be what seemed like more gifts under the tree than you could imagine. I guess being the youngest in the family I assumed they were all mine, which of course wasn't quite the case. There would always be the packages that contained the "needs" such as shirts, pants, socks and underwear (a standing tradition in our house even after I was grown). In addition to the "needs" there would always be plenty of "wants" to be found. By 6:30 or so all the neighborhood kids would be outside (now there's a concept for you). We'd be riding our new bikes, throwing a football, breaking in a new baseball glove, trying out a new pair of skates and more. One of the coolest "wants" that I can remember getting was a Five Speed Schwinn Stingray bike. That thing was black and silver and I was sure that if I could pedal it just a little faster I could get it airborne like that kid did years later in the movie ET.
I don't know what happened to that bike. I may have worn it out. I may have outgrown it, or it may have simply lost it's coolness over time. Whatever the case it certainly left a lasting impression but nowhere near the lasting impression of my family gathering early in the morning. I'm sure I didn't appreciate it as much then as I do now, but it wasn't about the "wants" or "needs", it was about family and friends!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
