Coming and going

Christmas and New Year have come and gone.  I didn't write about a Runnemede Christmas because there are several postings already on this BLOG about Christmas in my home in Runnemede.

However, I must mention my later Christmases in Runnemede -- when I was in college.  Alan was in Kenya at the time and I wanted to celebrate Christmas the same time as he did (8 hour time difference), so I figured he was opening his gifts in Kenya at 8 a.m. in the morning which was midnight our time.  So I made sure I opened my gifts at midnight.  I found out just this Christmas that Alan opened his presents on Christmas Eve, so I should have been opening my presents on Christmas Eve in the afternoon.

My dear family HAD to go along with this because -- well, just because they did.

Then in 1963 when Alan returned from Kenya. our first Christmas as a couple in the same town was one of the best Christmases I can remember.  Alan really went overboard and bought me a lot of presents.  Jewelry from Israel -- which he visited on his way home from Kenya -- a new jacket, which I wore out; a sweater; a hat and scarf and mittens; and if I remember a few other trinkets, like a couple of new charms for my charm bracelet. 

Alan set a precedent he couldn't keep up -- after that first Christmas, while I expected the same treatment the next Christmas, it wasn't to be.  Alan was a student at Rutgers and he was flat broke.  We both were.  The following Christmas his parents had returned from Kenya and we spent Christmas with them in Laurel Springs, instead of in Runnemede.  And that was my last Christmas in Runnemede because we were married the following summer.

That Christmas (1965) was pretty nice.  I had a job at Strawbridges in the evenings and I was working for a Philadelphia law firm during the day, so I was pretty much raking in the money which I spent lavishly.

For me the giving of gifts is the best part of Christmas.  I don't care what I get, or if I get anything at all, I get such pleasure out of giving presents to my husband, and in later years, and presently, giving gifts to my children and grandchildren.

And yes, I spend too much money.  But hey, it's just once a year.

The only thing I miss now days at Christmas is the ability to walk to the center of (a) town and window shop.  There is no main street in the town in which I live, just a bunch of strip malls on the  Pike.  And, oh, yes, I really miss the Christmas display at Wanamakers (I wrote about those trips in an earlier BLOG).

Hope you all had a great Christmas and that 2012 will be a great year for all.

ttfn

Christmas long ago

I vaguely remember a time when I believed that there was a Santa Claus.  My parents never let on that the fictional character wasn't real and until I was in first or second grade I waited anxiously on Christmas Eve for Santa's visit.

I recall vividly one such Eve.  I was being a pill.  My mom wanted me to get to sleep so she could do what parents do to keep the sprite elf's visit a mystery, and told me if I didn't get to sleep there would be no visit from Santa.  The threat of getting a lump of coal in my stocking was real, as we still has a coal-fired furnace.  Poor dad.  He had to go down and bank that thing every night and then stoke it first thing in the morning. 

I digress.

So I weedled her into allowing the shade that was pulled down on the window next to my bed to be raised all the way to the top so that I could watch out that window for Santa and his sleigh to arrive.

Of course, I soon fell asleep.  All I needed was a reason to really keep my eyes open, and then the lids slammed shut faster than a rabbit runs into his hidey hole.

The next morning I found a doll -- my first -- which I still have.  It had the kind of eyes that close automatically -- quite a treat for me.  I held that doll all day long on Christmas day.

One more thing.  This must have been before I was 5 because my sister wasn't in bed with me yet.  She was still in a crib. 

Ah, memories!

ttfn

Remembered again

I know I have a tendency to be redundant in these BLOGs but sometimes I can't find a remembrance I'm looking for in the list of BLOGs I've written for Runnemede Remembered, so if this is a repeat, just stop reading.

I think one of my first recalls I have of my life is the arrival at home of my mom from the hospital with my sister, Debbie.  Yippee!  I'm three years older than she, and in youngster years that practically made me an adult as far and I was concerned. 

She and I didn't get along too well when we were growing up, mainly, I think, because of that big gap in our ages (a little sarcasm there).  We yelled at each other.  We'd mess up each other's side of the bed we slept in.  If I didn't clean the floor soon enough, she'd write in the dust on my side of the bed, "Judy's dirt".  Neither she nor I would dare mop the other person's side of the bedroom, even though the mop certainly could extend under the bed all the way.  We were just that ornery with each other.

Her friends weren't my friends, and my friends weren't hers.  She was a freshman.  I was a senior.  I got married first.  I had my babies first.  But by then we were catching up to each other and became more endeared to each other.

I don't when it happened, though, that we really bonded.  However, I'm so glad it did.  We talk almost every Sunday.  And those talks make me feel so much better.  My husband can't understand what we have to talk about, but then he is not a great conversationalist.  I think we just gab.  She makes me laugh.  And I often cry.

I so wish we lived closer to each other so we could talk face to face.  That would be so nice. 

I am writing this because this week my dear sister sent me a Christmas bouquet and I'll have that to look at (and talk to?) for at least a couple of weeks.

Thanks Deb for all you mean to me.  I thank our Lord for you every day.  I love you.

ttfn

First kiss

Do you remember your first kiss?  I do, sort of.

My husband (then boyfriend, sort of) and I were on one of those Delaware River cruises with several other church kids and I bet him a quarter he wouldn't kiss me.  Pretty smart, huh?  Well, he leaned toward me and he told me he kissed me on the cheek, and he's still sticking to that story.  I didn't feel it. 

So, does that count?  I don't know.  I didn't feel it, and I didn't pay him a quarter.  We did, however, eventually kiss each other, and still do.  And yes, we still enjoy kissing each other.

ttfn

Just wondering

Is the Borough Hall still between 4th and 5th Avenues?

Is Santa's shed still in front of Borough Hall?

Do the police still work out of Borough Hall?

Where does one go to get a marriage license these days (in Runnemede)?

Does NJ still require a physical exam before issuing a marriage license?

Do all Runnemede students stay for lunch, or do most go home, like when I went to school?

Do all Runnemede students ride the bus now?  Or do most walk, like when I was a kid.  Note:  Out here where I live all students ride the bus even if they a couple of blocks away from the school.  And...the buses in some of the counties stop at every single house, even if two students live next door to each other.  This is very annoying if you get behind a school bus in the afternoon.  Since the school buses start picking up at 7:00 a.m., I wouldn't be involved in trailing one.  But I have trailed a bus on more than one occasion in the afternoon.  What ever happened to walking five miles to school, one way, in the winter, in foot-deep snow, uphill going and coming? :)  I've learned to not be out driving around between 3 and 4:30 p.m.

See what things I think about when I'm falling asleep at night?  Stupid, huh?

ttfn

Desk cleaning time

There's something enjoyable about cleaning out a desk. 

You find all kinds of things in a jumbled desk drawer that you thought you'd lost forever.

I'm thinking now, however, about the desk cleaning times I remember from school.

Didn't we have to clean out our desks once a month? 

And on the day we cleaned out our desks we received a brand new pencil, right? 

And it was worth the cleansing because we always found the lost red crayon, or the lost piece of chalk, or maybe that lost work book page we were supposed to take home and get signed, didn't we?

Ah, those were the days!

ttfn

Pictures on Windows

I was just reminded of something about which I wanted to comment on a couple of weeks ago, but my fuzzy mind just didn't remember to do it.

I was reminded by a Facebook posting about how happy our Halloweens were as children in Runnemede in the late 40s, early 50s.  No problems with poisoned candy or needles in the chocolate or anything like that.  Just fun for all, even the adults, I assume.

Well, I was reminded also that the windows on the Pike were painted (by the 7th and 8th graders) with Halloween pictures, you know those typical cemetery pictures, witches flying through the air, etc.  And then a few days after Halloween they were washed away and a few weeks later, right after Thanksgiving, the students got to do it again, only the second time they painted Christmas scenes, such as a Manger scene, Santa and his sled and reindeer, A Midnight Clear with a lone star shining on an old barn, etc.

I couldn't wait until I was in 7th grade so I would be one of the "volunteers" who painted those scenes.  By that time, however, they were no longer painting the windows on the Pike, or I was in Bingham in 7th grade and only the Downing School kids had the privilege of doing the painting.  I'm not sure why I wasn't a painter, but I don't remember that I wasn't a painter because of my inept art skills, just that the windows were no longer being painted.

Maybe that was for the best.

ttfn