Tuesday, December 13, 2011

CHRISTMAS QUOTEDOWN (13)

December saw the first of the great blizzards of the year. The wind howling down out of the Canadian wilds a few few hundred miles to the north had screamed over frozen Lake Michigan and hit Hohman, laying on the town great drifts of snow and long, story-high icicles, and sub-zero temperatures where the air cracked and sang. Streetcar wires creaked under caked ice and kids plodded to school through forty-five-mile-an-hour gales, tilting forward like tiny furred radiator ornaments, moving stiffly over the barren, clattering ground.

Preparing to go to school was about like getting ready for extended Deep-Sea Diving. Longjohns, corduroy knickers, checkered flannel Lumberjack shirt, four sweaters, fleece-lined leatherette sheepskin coat, helmet, goggles, mittens with leatherette gauntlets and a large red star with an Indian Chief's face in the middle, three pairs of sox, high-tops, overshoes, and a sixteen-foot scarf wound spirally from left to right until only the faint glint of two eyes peering out of a mound of moving clothing told you that a kid was in the neighborhood. 

There was no question of staying home. It never entered anyone's mind. It was a hardier time, and Miss Bodkin was a hardier teacher than the present breed. Cold was something that was accepted, like air, clouds, and parents; a fact of Nature, and as such could not be used in any fraudulent scheme to stay out of school.

My mother would simply throw her shoulder against the front door, pushing back the advancing drifts and stone ice, the wind raking the living-room rug with angry fury for an instant, and we would be launched, one after the other, my brother and I, like astronauts into unfriendly Arctic space. The door clanged shut behind us and that was it. It was make school or die.
——Jean Shepherd, A Christmas Story



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I've collected Christmas books for years, and must have at least a couple hundred. Their contents range from anthologies of seasonal poetry, short stories, and novels, to histories of the holiday and its customs and traditions, sketches and narratives of remembered Christmases by various writers, cookbooks, even a craft book or two, though Myladylove collects the latter two categories and probably has upwards of a hundred Christmas volumes of her own.

This year, starting on the first day of December, I thought it might be fun to dip into a few of these works and share a quote or two from their pages—a few lines of poetry, a bit of prose, maybe even a recipe—on a daily basis, a sort of "Christmas Quotedown," which I'll put up in addition to my regular posts. I'll also include a photo of the book's cover, from which the day's quotes are taken—though a few, lacking a dust jacket or any sort of fancy cover design, might be decidedly non-photogenic. On the other hand, several of my favorite Christmas works are quotably rich troves, indeed, and thus might end up furnishing more than a day's worth of quotes—though I'm starting out with the notion of a different book each day. 

Along the way, I hope I select some things you enjoy. 
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6 comments:

Kelly said...

...I love this story. His writing makes me laugh, and I liked the movie they made of it too. Matty and I just watched it this weekend...

Grizz………… said...

Kelly…

Yep, I love the movie, too—in no small part because so much of it resembles portions of many Christmases from my own youth.

BTW, not many people know it, but there was a second movie made around these Jean Shepherd characters, plus another another movie set around Christmas, also done from a Jean Shepherd story.

Gail said...

HI GRIZZ - great story - I am less than spirited these past few days - sigh....thanks for the uplift.
Love to you
Gail
peace.....

Grizz………… said...

Gail…

Awwww, you can't go getting down now with Christmas drawing near. I know how you feel, how it's so easy to get to thinking about all the things that you wish were better in your life—health, relationships, finances; how Christmas this year won't be the same, won't be like it used to be because…(fill in the blank).

I'm not saying the feelings aren't real, the desires aren't good, and the assessment isn't honest. But we simply can't change everything in life to make it fit our plans. We can never go back for a redo. Tomorrow may not come. Time moves steadily on. All we ever have is today, to be made the best of or not—our choice. There is so much I'd change in my life if I could…but I can't. I can either live in heartbreak and regret, or find whatever love and joy and beauty can be mine at a given moment. And sometimes, I admit, there's not much…at least not until you look around.

My mother used to say how she came to appreciate valleys, because without valleys, there couldn't be mountain tops. We all love being on top of the world. But the truth is, we have to be willing to climb to get there.

Bake some cookies. Call up a friend or two and tell them how much you love 'em. Go out for dinner. Keep climbing. You're too blessed to let the seasonal blahs keep you down for long.

Gail said...

HI GRIZZ - I am so overwhelmed with gratitude that you took the time to write to me, I feel good that I am "worth-your-while". That is a gift in of itself. I know that every word you wrote is true and I agree totally and I am bringing myself back up to a good place one upward step at a time. I am blessed and I never forgot that. Thank you for the good 'talking to',
Love to you
Gail
peace....

Grizz………… said...

Gail…

Not so much a "talking to" as a "been right there and understand completely" admission. We are both very blessed, in spite of things in our respective lives we wish were different. But, overwhelmingly, blessed. And not to belabor what I hope you already know…you are my friend, really and truly, and always worth taking the time.