You
know there is a lot to be said for tradition. For those who don’t know what it
means I looked it up for you in dictionary.com a : an inherited, established, or customary
pattern of thought, action, or behavior (as a religious practice or a social
custom) b : a belief or story or a body of beliefs or
stories relating to the past that are commonly accepted as historical though
not verifiable : the handing down of information, beliefs, and
customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without
written instruction : cultural continuity in social attitudes,
customs, and institutions characteristic manner, method, or style <in the
best liberal tradition> . Given this as the background, I want all of
you to send me (a belief or story or a body of beliefs or stories relating to
the past that are commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable) you
fondest Christmas tradition! As you all know, every blog or story that I post
might not fall into this definition, because mine are all VERIFIABLE! Just send
it to me in an email and I will post it to the blog, as the countdown continues,
we could have several TRADITIONS posted. Let me get the ball
rolling! 6 Knows we all dream of a white Christmas, and back in the day, they
were all white! (Little white lie). The story begins on an early frosty morning
Dec 24th. As it was the tradition, 6 would gather all of his hard earned
“tip” money from his paper route, and meet his friend (yes 6 had friends, and
at least one of them was real) at the bus stop on to “top the hill”. After
walking up hill for miles in the driving snow, 6’s friend and as well as the
bus arrived, and we boarded. It was standing room only, as we made stop every
100 yards, more and more people boarded, but that did not matter, for it was
the season of” good will to all”. As we picked up the final boards in Etna, 6
began to notice the scents of the season, and no it was not pine, and homemade
cookies, it was diesel fumes, and stale beer,
even that did not spoil the tradition, after all Tis the season to be
Merry! As we made our final stop in the
Nor Side by this time 6’s face was smashed against the window, 6 noticed a
elderly gentleman noising in the trash can eating his breakfast he had some
left over McDonald fries, in one hand and a box of corn flakes in the other, 6
could not help but thanking God, for all he had. The bus crossed the 10th
street Bridge, and made it way towards Liberty Ave, where we were greeted by
the women of the night. The next several hours were spend spending tip money,
purchasing gift for all of 6’s loved ones. 6 then came to the realization that
he was hungry, and had not money for the bus ride home. (No one ever said that
6 was smart, just you’re above average intellectual). Using superior intellect
we went to beg for some money from 6’s friend’s dad. Not real sure he was happy
about that, but 6’s tummy was full and there was bus fare in our pockets! Soon
enough we arrived home wrapped all of the presents, delivered the papers, and
sat down to eat the traditional Christmas eve dinner, clam chowder. 6 was a devout
Christian back in the day as
demonstrated by going to church twice on Christmas eve. The first event was at
the little church at the bottom of the hill, and second was midnight mass at
St. Bonnie’s. Now there was a reason
that 6 had to go twice, and that was because he had a lot to repent about. Let
me explain. While 6’s friend’s parents keep the tradition of going to 6’s house
for some holiday cheer, 6 and 5’s friends all meet at 6 and 5’s parents’ house
for some Holiday cheer of their own. Now think back to a couple blogs ago, and
the review of the tasting at the tea place on Kiawah(see I got Kiawah in there
again). The next thing that 6 can recall was sitting in St. Bonnie’s in a pew
with his real friend, and Fr. (got the face but don’t got a name) asking him
all kinds of questions. I bet Father knows all about the tea in Kiawah! Believe
it or not 6 remembers his sermon. I will paraphrase it was about a white dove
in a barn on a snowy Christmas eve from his past. To this day 6 still has no idea what he was talking about,
6 must have missed something! I did
notice 5 and his friends standing out in the lobby of the church, they told us
that they would meet us there after mass for our ride home. All was well… After
mass 5 and his friends were nowhere to be found I bet they brought us there,
picked up a bulletin to prove they went to mass, and left us high and dry. What
he did was “Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave us for dead” No we
were just doing fine! All we could do was to walk home. While we were in church
for the past 3 hours, the snow came and the temperature dropped. It was now
about 10 with a -10 wind-chill factor, with 3 feet of snow, but 6 was fine in
his nice new suit and tie, no gloves, no hat, no coat no boots! Clark, Audrey's frozen from the waist down. That's all
part of the experience, honey. So you now know why 6 had to go to church twice.
After the fist service, we fell to pressure from 5 and his friends, went to the
second mass, Fr. Called us on it, so we had to confess what we did, and the
walk home was our penance!
Next week: The tradition of the Christmas tree
Words of
wisdom: "Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of
our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and
transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!" ~Charles
Dickens
There was a was a lot of fun had by all, there were a couple new additions to our group and one glaring absence. The only problem was the camera battery went dead so I wasn't able to get as many pictures as I would have liked.
ReplyDelete