Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Ralphie


One of my favorite Christmas traditions is to watch A Christmas Story, the best thing about this tradition is that all I need to do is to sit back, with a big mug of coffee and enjoy, be entertained and do a little time traveling back to the days, before my youth.

It reminds me of some of the good and bad and just plain kid things. How dull the long winters wereand how on those long winter nights, I would visit my neighbors, they had no children, but their cozy kitchen, the walls lined with a fabulous array of roster and chiken figurines, and illuminated by a wall lamp decorated with rosters, it cast it's soft golden glow across the room,. there were always wonderful sugar cookies and other home baked treats, and wonderful stories about far away places, or thier growing up in the early 1900's. And I can't help but think of how
the family or brothers and sisters, none of whom had ever traveled very far from home, had instilled in me, and every other kid in the neighborhood, a sense of wonder at the wide wide world.

Oh. and the snowsuit!!!!! the most cumbersome piece of clothing ever invented. Now it is rare to see children out playing in the snow, but then, we would zip and button and tie and hitch until we all felt like" a tick ready to pop". and out we went to build snowmen and igloos and play cowboys and Indians in the snow. sledding and building snowforts, pelting and getting pelted with snowballs.
And those who were a bit more daring knew that a good snowsuit was much faster than any sled on even the gentlest slope.

And didn't everyone have a teacher like Miss Shields, a sinisterly woman, who's life was her job.
And her only joys good penmanship and punctuation.
Fortunately I also had some teachers who weren't like her. But that is at least 2 or 3 other posts.

Every time I see Ralphie and his brother standing in line to see Santa, I remember how it felt to
this kid at Christmas, going down to the 5 and 10, yes we had a store called the "5 and 10 cent store" to see Santa, who was really this guy that worked with my Dad. The lights and the
decorations filled me with wonder, and I always had on special toy picked out. Sadly, unlike Ralphie, didn't get what I wanted.
Those were "tough times" much like now.

That anticipation, so strong when I was a kid, still overtakes me at times. So thank you Jean Shepard, for .....everything.

YUM!, guest blogger on making Naan....something I am new to and still working on

  Naan is tasty!   I wanted to make some, and from there on out, wellllllllllll, it's been a learning experience!   And I don't give...