Tis the season? 

I always approach the fall holidays with trepidation. Walking into a store in late August and seeing Halloween decorations on display, followed by Christmas decorations in September. Valentine candy and cards that pop up before New Years Eve? I find it depressing and despicable.  It's the right of every American to spend their cash and work for more.

There would be nothing missing from Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas were any of the hype, decorations, sales, ad nauseum disappeared in my world. I have my own ways to celebrate holidays that are certainly not connected to the supply chain or chain store. I am a bit Grinchy and Scroogeish. 

I remember an old man, Squire Hines, saying "when you find something a friend or family can use, it don't make no difference when you give it to em. Anytime is a good time, July or February."

Mid Winter's Eve...I look forward to it. It's an ancient ritual that celebrates the return of our sun's yearly journey Northward, bringing the warmth and "rebirth" to all things.

 I have my doubts about Jesus being born on Christmas Day, but I can understand the sentiment. Just saying.  

Another pet peeve? I'm not really a fan of traditional Thanksgiving or Christmas fare. I think the traditional Turkey and Dressing highly overrated, as are congealed cranberry sauce and green bean casserole. 

Family tradition runs rife!

Baa, Humbug! Have some fun! Chili or  Chicken and Dumplings work just fine. Do something different. My wife and I tried for years not to starve to death a Christmas for the family favorites. Everyone brought their "specialty".

Halloween was a marketing scheme of corporations to get digging in you pockets after a long dry spell after Labor Day.  I doubt you can find in your house many who know the history of All Hallows' Eve. I know it's a good time to dress as something you aren't. I've done that once or twice. Once in a Tuxedo. The angst young'uns go through deciding what they're going to be is hard on parents and pocketbooks. He sugar rush is worse.

St Valentine was never a favorite. I could never understand signing your name to a cheap card addressed to people you liked, or disliked, for that matter. It was especially hard to see the pretty girls and the popular boys get all the cards, and others get one or two. I made it my burden to make sure everyone got a card from me, pretty, popular or not. 

 Thanksgiving belonged to extended family at our house. Uncles and Aunts came with pecan pies, beagle hounds, a jug of something for a week hunting, eating, adult beverages and playing music. It was probably my favorite of the holidays till the hunters came home with too many quail and cottontails for me and my brother to clean after dark in the cold. 

I suppose the first time I really realized that Christmas was about the money was when I began teaching in WV. I hadn't been home in a couple of years. I began to figure how I could go home to Georgia for Christmas on the WV school teachers pay of $4600.00 in 1966. 

I did have the enough money for a plane ticket. I didn't feel I had enough money for presents for parents and siblings. I felt pressured to show I was now a man of the world. I succumbed to commercial credit.

 There was a clothing store in town that carried Woolrich coats, jackets and vests. I applied for a charge account at the store, and it was granted. I bought warm shirt jackets or down vests for all the family The holiday was a success. Why I thought the presents were necessary when just being home was good enough for them, it seemed.

Back in WV, my account became due. My car needed tires, and a tune up and a muffler. I ended up getting the pink slip from the clothing store. It took me until summer to pay it off.

Once,  while home, I went in the back closet I had when living at home. I knew I'd find some High School treasures I had left on selves there. I also found Mama and Daddy's Woolrich jackets. I guess it too hot for Woolrich. 

My family decided that the White Elephant was the way to go. Only the little nieces and nephews got a present. The adults picked their poison White Elephant; many surviving cleverly disguised from last year's White Elephant. I was fun, cheap, and simple.

 I never said anything about the jackets. Just before Mama died, Janice and I replaced the light in her closet. When the new fixture came on, bright and clears as a Christmas Morn, there was Mama's Woolrich jacket from 1964.

Moths had made themselves at home, but Mama wouldn't have cared. All her "wool things" had moth holes. It was donated to Goodwill. I suppose the real worth of giving Mama that Woolrich jacket is it will be keeping someone who needs a coat, warm, moth holes and all.

Merry and Happy...