Texas Fall/Winter thread!

[blueriver]

I really do like Christmas .. I'd just prefer it don't start in OCTOBER .. But each there own.

 

[NativeSon]

Christmas is for children, and I enjoy it with my boys and the grandkids. The excitement and joy in their faces brings warmth to my heart.

One of my most memorable Christmas was in 1968. I hadn't been away from home for Christmas before and here I was half-way around the world in the Tonkin Gulf. A few nights before I had the pleasure of being High-lined on a very dark night from the USS Ponchatula to the Hanger deck of the USS Hancock(that wasn't a lot of fun). The fun came when we got word the Bob Hope's USO Show was coming aboard to entertain the troops on Christmas Eve. Bob Hope and cast were the Heros that night for me. Ann Margaret, Rosie Greer, The Gold Diggers, I will never forget them. At the close of the show they all came out on stage and started singing "Silent Night". There was about 3000 fairly tough Marines and Fleet Sailors watching that night and as we got to the last verse.......there wasn't a dry eye on board.

That night all of us in uniform dreamed of being home at that moment, but here was Bob Hope and his crew who had all volunteered to come over and spend Christmas Eve with us.

God Bless you Bob Hope and the USO.

Charlie

 

[mikim]

I missed the Bob Hope show at Ubon cause we were still flying and I was on the flight line. I saw them come in and go out - but didn't make the show. Worked regular shifts through all the holidays that year. 12 hour shifts were normal. God Bless all our troops where ever they may be. They sacrifice their freedoms and spend time away from family so we may enjoy ours.

 

[Western]

I missed the Bob Hope show at Ubon cause we were still flying and I was on the flight line. I saw them come in and go out - but didn't make the show. Worked regular shifts through all the holidays that year. 12 hour shifts were normal. God Bless all our troops where ever they may be. They sacrifice their freedoms and spend time away from family so we may enjoy ours.

Now there was a "class act" Bob Hope was great.

I like Christmas for all the reasons y'all have mentioned. I also like the memories over the years that the season has made, old Christmas songs, Nat K Cole, Blue eyes, Elvis and a host of other ones. The old TV Christmas specials like the Boone family. Fire places, cold, candles, lights, Great FOOD and lots of junk!! Grandpa roasting pecans, grandmothers pies, seeing extended family on occasion.

Law Enforcement cut into it as Bird said, but there was more positives than negatives, had to make a few of those "dreaded calls" that really are hard to do, let alone during a holiday.

I guess some just cant handle the "pressure" of the holidays

 

[Bird]

I have always thought very highly of Bob Hope and the rest of the crew that did those shows. And don't tell my wife, but I've been in love with Ann Margret since the first time I saw her, both for looks and for the things she did, such as the Bob Hope shows.

How many of you ever strung popcorn to decorate a Christmas tree? Our first Christmas after we got married, I happened to find a really big Christmas tree that was cheaper then the smaller ones; not as full and perfectly shaped as some. But we couldn't afford much in the way or decorations, so we took a spool of thread and a needle, threaded the needle, doubled the thread and made it long enough to reach across the living room floor and down the hall of our apartment. Each night we popped corn (no butter or salt) and we took turns stringing it. One sat of the soft and put the needle through each kernel and when there were several on the thread, the other one pulled it all down the thread and down the hall and we kept doing that for several evenings and decorated that tree with long strings of popcorn.

 

[jinman]

Bird, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but in that old house we lived in, a popcorn decorated tree would have been destroyed by mice and probably cockroaches. . . mice for sure. I never saw a place with so many mice. We could set 3 or 4 traps every night and 2 or 3 of them would be full in the morning.

 

[farmgirl19]

So why is it that Christmas is the only time for family? Yes, I am only half joking about the Bah Humbug. I don't understand why it isn't year 'round. Western mentioned the food. Many of us have good food, all year, and usually even more in the summer. Go look through the Spring/Summer thread and see what all jinman was cooking, all summer from his garden.

A fire in the fireplace, had that going 24/7 for many days already, and it isn't even Winter Solstice. It will burn into Jan and Feb, so don't need Christmas for that.

My dad worked Christmas most of my younger years. The highlight of the season was driving through downtown Fort Worth, and seeing all of the motion decorations in the windows of the stores. Those were magical. I don't think I have seen any decorations that can compare, even in this age of technology. But we didn't do that Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, because dad always worked those days too. We went the week before Christmas. (After all, no one put their decorations up before Thanksgiving, back then!) We often had Christmas on Dec. 18 or 19, before dad had to go on the road again, or on Dec. 28 or 29.

When I began flying freight, many times we'd get the overnight package to someplace like Pittsburgh, PA, on the morning of Dec. 24, and the flight out was cancelled that night due to Christmas, so one didn't get home until the morning of the 26 or 27. Same with flying passengers. You would fly out on Dec. 24, and flight out on 25 is not scheduled, so you don't get home until 26 or 27. The neat things was, those with small kids wouldn't bid those lines of time, so as to be home for the holidays, and they were really nice schedules, so those of us more junior on the seniority list would get them. I'd do it all over again.

One of my best friends and her family have Christmas in July. Easier to get the entire family in town and together. That is when they do gift exchanges, etc.

Yes, Christmas is for kids, and if you have young children or grandchildren, it will be more magical, but it doesn't have to be on a certain day. Christmas has become MUCH too commercial. It lost its meaning many years ago due to stores putting up the decorations so early, some even before Halloween. And if I enter a store before Thanksgiving, and they are playing Christmas carols, I turn around and walk out.

I send "care packages" to friends this time of year, but I also send packages to those same friends the other seasons too.

So, if the spirit is around only because it is a certain day or two, then yes, I will say, Bah Humbug!

I find the stories of not being able to hold your new baby until it is 7 months old, or not knowing where an estranged spouse took your kids, much more disturbing than not having "Christmas".

On that same note, I think Bob Hope and his USO tours showed the sort of class act that group has always been. May God bless them all!

 

[Western]

FG, you're just making "excuses" to not enjoy the holiday:laughing: It is a day even a young girl such as yourself, can "splurge" on delights, you otherwise wont allow, extra good food, 4 bottles of wine chased by 3 bottles of scotch, a young fella flirting with ya in a supermarket!!:laughing: and no one will say squat!! mostly. Don't be bitter......Hey Christmas is a great time to take time off and jump in a plane too:thumbsup:

Bird, We did the popcorn thing the weekend after thanksgiving, yellow and white kernels. One year we even added dried fruit, but that was tough to thread:laughing:.

Jim, at least with the mice, you would have never went hungry!!:shocked:

 

[jinman]

So why is it that Christmas is the only time for family?

It's not the only time, but when else during the year do most people universally have the day off? If you want to wait until the middle of Summer, that's fine by me, but schools and most businesses give people time off in December. If you can convince them to do that in mid-July, more power to you. The kids will already be off from school in most cases. But really, what's wrong with tradition? I don't expect traditions to change just because of me. Honestly, I don't care if a store is playing Christmas music or rap music. I didn't come there to listen to music and just don't care. Sure, I'm surprised to see Christmas decorations and stuff, but if the store determines that they make more profit on that space with decorations and stuff, why should I care?

Is Christmas commercialized? Yes, what isn't? Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Back-to-school, Halloween, etc. That doesn't mean I have to go overboard. Even so, I like all those occasions and their traditions. I'm sorry that some are so inconvenienced by working a job that is in high demand during the holidays. At some time during our lives, I think many of us have missed holidays due to circumstances out of our control or voluntarily because we worked in service industries that required us to be there on holidays.

Now, I think I've picked on you a bit, so I need to say that all this is said with a wry smile and somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I do believe that personal choices are always there and we all have the right to choose when and how we celebrate or even not at all.

 

[mikim]

We also did construction paper chains...cut colored construction paper into strips, glue each strip into a circle linking it into the previous. It may have been more an exercise in keeping the kids busy with school out than anything else. ....and the weeks leading up were all about peeling and picking walnuts for baking. We'd pick up walnuts in the woods, dry 'em in the attic for several weeks then peel 'em and pick 'em.