Today is cold, 35°, not so unexpected. It is also mostly cloudy and a bit windy. Even the dogs didn’t stay outside. They are into comfort. Dismal fits today so far but but I’m hoping for a little sun.

When I was a kid, Christmas started early. Uptown was decorated with lights on garlands which stretched from one side of the street to the other. The store windows had greenery and a few wrapped presents, as sort of inspirations I guess. The fire station and the police station, in the same building, were always decorated with lights. A Santa was climbing up a ladder to the chimney. That was my favorite decoration. A nativity was on the lawn of the town hall. The figures were big, and there was real straw. As we got closer to Christmas, a platform was set up in the square in front of The Children’s Corner. Every night, kids sang carols from the platform. Each night it was a different class from a different school. I remember my debut on the platform. I was in the fifth grade. We had the John Hancock book of Christmas carols. I remember how proud I was standing there singing in the middle of the square.

I loved to ice skate. I had choices as to where to skate. Sometimes my mother gave me money for the bus and for the MDC rink. I remember the rink was warm inside and had benches to sit on when putting on and taking off my skates. The rink was round and had sides, all the better to keep me from falling. The town put up a rink on Recreation Park. It too was round with sides. I hung on to those as well. A temporary shack was built with a wood stove and wooden benches. Under the benches is where we all put our shoes. Sometimes you had to hunt for one shoe or the other. I remember walking home on unsteady feet after an afternoon of skating. My favorite place to skate was the swamp. It was across the field, over the dead tree trunk in a clearing in the woods. The swamp’s open space was in the front. I’d sit on the cold ground to put on my skates. I fell sometimes on the ice, no sides, just trees.

I have a decorating project today. I have all red ornaments of different shapes and sizes and a long, thin branch from a pine tree. I’m going to hang the ornaments in different lengths from the branch then hang it in the house.

My dance card has the usual, a uke practice and lesson, and the start of our Christmas concerts, three this week.

This entry was posted on December 3, 2024 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.