Winter's Eve, December 31 - Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?

We are in Akron, OH ringing in the New Year with our friends Red Wanting Blue.

2018 is just a few moments away so I am pushing to get this out.

Deadlines.  I really want to get way from the Deadlines.  What's the root word?  Dead?  Or Lines?

Time.

Before I get too deep, I want to thank you if you've taken the time to read these 31 December blogs.  Or if you bought our music, or a tee shirt or came to our show this year, or wrote in sharing a memory of your own.

Thanks for connecting in 2017.  Let's do it again next year.

Until then, here's to old acquaintance.

Here's to a Happy and prosperous New Year.

Barry (and Terry, Carter & Jon)

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint-stoup!
and surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

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Winter's Eve, December 29 - Wonder

My 12 year old niece gave me this book Wonder and asked me to read it so we could go see the movie over break.  I told her I definitely would.

Lies.

She asked me at Christmas, had I "finished the book".  I said, "I had not finished".  

Or started.  Not even the back cover.  

We all piled in to the theater and watched the movie, which is a very aspirational family type movie that only a PG rating could deliver.  I would recommend it if you have a young person in your life that struggles with fitting in, feeling different, looking different, had a deficiency or a defect,  is working to keep up with the social curve, has a big heart, is coming into their own, is ahead of the curve, or is maybe on the other end, and is nasty or a bully or one of those kids that rides the fence between the two worlds depending on the situation.  

ie. most any 12-year-old.

She liked the movie too, but said she thought the book had more depth to it.

Good for her.

- Barry

PS - leaving the theater, couldn't resist...

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Winter's Eve, December 28 - Snoopy, Come Home

This time last week, things were tense at the Carbon Leaf shop, as we were all grinding long days in the studio, getting packages ready for deadline shipping, waiting on materials that were late, and realizing with some simple math how incrementally far we were falling behind with each passing hour.

Then, we discovered our mailing system got fouled up and we’d need to pause and rebuild it.

At one point, I went into the house garage, passing through towards the kitchen for a glass of water,  and I found Terry there with several broken, wooden things -  a small child’s straight-back chair, a Snoopy sleigh - he was glueing, clamping, vicing them back together with what he could make work within arm's reach.

I suspect it was part of a Holidays-Are-Coming honey-do list.  

I hesitated, but opened my mouth anyway.

“Is that really a priority?”

“Everything’s a priority.”

 

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Winter's Eve, December 27 - Another Man's Treasure

Years ago when I was home from college on Christmas break, I saw these hand-painted vintage Russian nesting dolls sitting in the trash in the garage near the present-wrapping station.  

The heavy, handblown crystal tree was in the trash as well, with it’s lighted stand and frayed two prong power cord.  

They had been on display around the house for Christmas since I could remember.

I rescued them from obscurity, and confronted my mom and asked her what was up with that.  

She said, “Oh, they’re just old and ratty..."

 

Who does that?  

WHO DOES THAT?!?!

Carbon Leaf Christmas

Winter's Eve, December 26 - Shadows In The Banquet Hall

To family dinner Christmas night
We’d cross the river shipyard lights
Before the heartbreak and unknown
Today I strike out on my own
-Toy Soldiers

 

In truth, this gathering was always the day after Christmas, December 26th, for the Privett side of the family.  

This year, I went to Christmas Eve service,  and then started driving around town, seeing the lights, turning over the old stomping grounds in my mind.  Remembering.  

While on Brambleton Ave, my hands jerked the wheel hard right, committing me into the midtown tunnel, across the Elizabeth River and onto the bridge towards Portsmouth.  

This was December 26 for us every year.  It was the route to either Grandmama and Grandpop's, Aunt Dolly’s or Aunt Sissies for the Privett side of the family gathering, depending on who’s year it was. 

They’re all gone.  My grandparents finally sold the place in 1990 after mostly retiring down into Hatteras increasingly each year.  It had been so long since I’d been back...we were always in the back seat.  I had real trouble finding it.  Google didn’t pull it up because they have since renamed it from a ’Terrace’ to a ‘Road’. 

I found it.  I hadn’t been back or seen the place in 30 years.  It looked very different - much improved - but I recognized the house next to it, which hadn’t changed a bit,  and then the old blueprint emerged easily in my mind and I just let out a gasp and muttered, ‘yep…yep. That’s it.’  

I was running around every room.

I drove down the street and circled back.  The plot next store to the right was still an empty field(!)  It butts up to a small piece of the western branch of the Elizabeth River,  so it was dark.   I parked and walked down the field and creeped around a little, looking at the house from what safe angle I could from next door.   The woodshop my grandfather built was still there.  It used to have a dog run for Muglsy.  The new folks added a back porch to the house.  

It's a sublime feeling, knowing that a family of strangers lives there, and yet you could walk through their house blindfolded, if you needed to.

Ghosts.

 
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TOY SOLDIERS

Today I strike out on my own
The dog is dead.  The kids have grown
I fell asleep in my writing chair
I dreamt I'd found my childhood stare
To family dinner Christmas night
We'd cross the river shipyard lights
Before the heartbreak and unknown
Today I strike out on my own

Hi-diddely-o, didn't ya know?  
You fade once you glow  
Didn't ya know, child?  
After the rhyme, high time
diddely-o, didn't ya know?  
You fade once you glow
Didn't ya know, child?  
After the rhyme, high time

The families gather but we're all
Mere Shadows in this Banquet Hall
I'm begging mom, will you understand?
I'm begging dad, will you hold her hand?
To play outside was all I'd known
And Christmas lights on every home

Hi-diddely-o, didn't ya know?  
You fade once you glow  
Didn't ya know, child?  
After the rhyme, high time
diddely-o, didn't ya know?  
You fade once you glow
Didn't ya know, child?  
After the rhyme, high time

We find the people of our dreams
We find that they're not what they seem
I've learned that people come and go
I've learned that families break and grow
Toy soldiers brave away those tears
Toy soldiers hope for better years
Today I strike out on my own
The dog is dead.  We kids have grown

 
 

RED PUNCH/GREEN PUNCH

Nothing says Christmas like
A party out at my great-aunt’s
Out on the front lawn
Some things never change...
A manger scene, Wise Men and
A herd of sheep so fantastic
Hard colored plastic
Blinking in the yard

Red Punch/Green Punch
Brach’s Holiday Mints and peanuts
The more things stay the same
You know, the more they stay the same
Red punch/Green punch
A silver bowl of mints and some peanuts
The great-aunts of the world
You know, will never change their game

Figurines like memories
Ceramics pulled from the basement
Fire-glazed in 1963
Silent Night music box
Travel back in time when
Christmas always shines

Red Punch/Green Punch
Brach’s Holiday Mints and peanuts
The more things stay the same
You know, the more they stay the same
Red punch/Green punch
A silver bowl of mints and some peanuts
The great-aunts of the world
You know, will never change their game

The Poor Years, the War Years
The ‘50s and the ‘60s, then-I’m-born years
May Christmas in the ‘70s
And the early ‘80s never fade
Red punch/Green punch

I never thought I could miss it so much
The more things change, you know, I think
Some things should stay the same
Red Punch/Green Punch
A silver bowl of mints and some peanuts
The great-aunts of the world may come and go
But may they never change their game

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Winter's Eve, December 25th - A Sleigh Ride Together With You

Sent: Fri, Jan 15, 2010 4:58 pm
Subject: Neighborhood icon

Dear Neighbors, 
You have lived here a long time!
Remember this neighborhood sleigh that sat in Roy's yard every
Christmas? Roy says it has been in the neighborhood for about 40 years!
Do any of you have  pictorial or verbal history you can share with the Civic League and
Garden Club ? I have just rescued the sleigh from obscurity, not used
for quite a few years due to disrepair ,and have it stored at Smith
furniture for an evaluation and estimate. Barbara is interested
in helping us find craftsmen. Any of you interested in working on this
as a preservation project? Pictures with Santa, anyone ?

Sharon Privett,
Garden Club President

And so, my mom learned from the old guard that the sleigh would traditionally be decorated by the Civic League or Women’s Garden Club and placed in the front yard of a different members’ home each holiday season.

I just dug through her old emails to find these pictures; I can’t take credit for helping - a little staining near the end, when I was home for a few days.

The sleigh sat in the garage for a good part of the year,  as neighbors came and went, in an ever-tightening corkscrew to reach the holiday deadline.

They bit off more than they could chew, and I remember a somewhat tense time over Thanksgiving, and spilling into December that year.  

But they got it done.

The drive home each Christmas is a hard drive.  I always forget about the sleigh that mom helped rescue from obscurity.  

Until I turn down into the neighborhood, and there it is, beautiful and still, all aglow in the night on my godfather’s front lawn, pricking me in the heart.

 
 
 

Winter's Eve, December 24

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Holiday Quiet on these streets
Except for some stubborn leaves
That didn't fall with the fall
And now they clatter in vain

Holiday road, midnight clear
Wind is high, hard to steer
Old muffler rumbles
Like an old fighter plane

In search of some rest
In search of a break
From a life of tests
Where something's always at stake

Where something's always so far
What about my broken car?
What about my life so far?
What about my dream?
What about.....

 
 

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