'Twas the night before Christmas &out on the ranch"

[WayneB]

WISHING ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

'Twas the night before Christmas & out on the ranch
The pond was froze over & so was the branch.
The snow was piled up belly-deep to a mule.

The kids were all home on vacation from school,
And happier young folks you never did see-
Just all sprawled around a-watchin' TV.

Then suddenly, some time around 8 o'clock,
There came a surprise that gave them a shock!
The power went off, the TV went dead!

When Grandpa came in from out in the shed
With an armload of wood, the house was all dark.
"Just what I expected," they heard him remark.
"Them power line wires must be down from the snow.

Seems sorter like times on the ranch long ago."
"I'll hunt up some candles," said Mom. "With their light,
And the fireplace, I reckon we'll make out all right."

The teen-agers all seemed enveloped in gloom.
Then Grandpa came back from a trip to his room,
Uncased his old fiddle & started to play
That old Christmas song about bells on a sleigh.

Mom started to sing, & 1st thing they knew
Both Pop & the kids were all singing it, too.
They sang Christmas carols, they sang "Holy Night,"
Their eyes all a-shine in the ruddy firelight.

They played some charades Mom recalled from her youth,
And Pop read a passage from God's Book of Truth.
They stayed up till midnight-and, would you believe,
The youngsters agreed 'twas a fine Christmas Eve.

Grandpa rose early, some time before dawn;
And when the kids wakened, the power was on.
"The power company sure got the line repaired quick,"
Said Grandpa - & no one suspected his trick.

Last night, for the sake of some old-fashioned fun,
He had pulled the main switch - the old Son-of-a-Gun!

 

[JB4310]

Don't know if you made that up, but it's brilliant.

With 2 teenagers and another almost there, with all there cell phones, text messaging, Ipods, TVs' and other distractions.
All these communication tools, but pitiful lack of communication skills,
I need to "pull the Main"

Thanks, and Merry Christmas

Was more merry and simpler when they were youger though

JB.

 

[Lloyd_E]

We should all do this...

Thank you.


Lloyd

 

[WayneB]

No I cannot take credit for it!

A friend that works for the Public Utilities company sent it along to me. Not sure if he made it up or even tried it with his kids.

 

[jinman]

The sentiment is easy to identify with , but I'll keep my power on and use On/Off switches to shut down the video games.

Very nice poem though.

 

[chrisdvorak]

nice poem indeed!

 

[jayste]

Very nice. Times like this seem to be a thing of the past. From a simpler and more wholesome time.

On a somewhat related note, I once did a similar thing. My then teenage son had a friend over to spend the night. I told them that we were going to bed and that at midnight shut the video game off and go to bed. Well, as boys will do at times, they thought that they could just keep playing since we were asleep anyway. About 12:30 I woke up and looked down the hallway to see the bedroom light still on. I just stepped out into the utility room, opened the breaker panel and shut off all power to his bedroom.....nighty-night!

Jay