DelBloggolo: EVERYTHING IS IN PLACE

Monday, December 01, 2014

EVERYTHING IS IN PLACE

Yes, all the stars line up. It is Monday AND the first of December. But it is also the last month of the year. A year that went by so quickly with some of the highest and lowest points in my life sandwiched in between.

For some strange reason I remember so many years ago, standing in my school yard of Our Lady of Lourdes, it being December 1^st, because it was the month of Christmas, that month all little kids love. One of my schoolmates was wearing a coonskin hat during the Davey Crockett mania. I wanted a Davey Crockett gun for Christmas and was ready to march off to fight the hated Mexicans at the Alamo, we’d fix them this time and avenge Jim Bowie as well!

Isn’t it interesting how clues can trigger memories, even down to the finest and even forgotten details? I looked at the date and remembered something so insignificant like the afforded mentioned details?

Once there was an occasion when I was working and smoking was tolerated in the work place, someone lit a match to a cigarette, and it took me back to my Dad when he would grab a cup of coffee and light a cigarette and read his newspaper.

Then there was the woman who laughed outside my office and sounded just like Mom’s laugh. I’ve told about her a few times already so I will spare you the words again. But once again, triggers that bring me back.

When I was in college, I was in an auto accident as a passenger, and had to go to Brooklyn to a court for something and I don’t recall what. It was dead of winter and as I entered the old building that was heated with steam, I could smell the steam, taking me back to those days in Our Lady of Lourdes school building once again, and the steam heat!

But biggest trigger ever is the smell of a fresh Christmas tree! Talk about childhood memories, talk about so many memories all at once, talk about the happy times. Of course every Christmas Eve I was held almost hostage to my prior behaviors, and Dad, dear old Dad, would plant the seed of doubt that Santa may not be coming because I wasn’t the most well behaved child, I might be getting coal.

But Christmas morning nowadays one memory always appears. It was our first Christmas as a married couple and things were tight. I had broken my watch so wasn’t wearing one anymore, when TLW (The Little Woman) had it fixed in time for Christmas. It was the best and most appreciated gift she has ever given me, the gift for some reason was very special, and I still feel that way today. Maybe we were poor, but the sentiment was rich.