So, this is Christmas....
Sigh. WASH-FM begins broadcasting Christmas music tomorrow morning. To those of you in the hinterland, this won't mean much. But, to the credit of their marketing department, this has become something of a DC tradition, and is sort of the 'official' start of the Holiday Season here for many folks, and one more turn in my life-long confusing and complicated relationship with Christmas. On the one hand, it'll mean getting together with family and friends, my favorite activity. And I am grateful for any excuse to do so. But it is also a grim reminder of those I can no longer do that with. This week, I began going through the Christmas card list - another yearly ritual. And I have to shave a few names off, every year. It's become a tally sheet of those who've died.
While growing up, my folks had a pretty good circle of neighbors, relatives and friends. Those in the area we'd socialize with year-round. For the others, get-togethers might take several courses. We'd always travel on vacation in the Summer, and travel plans would include stop-overs or destinations with these folks. And of course the advantage to living in DC is that one could expect a variety of people to visit us, for business or vacation. There was always someone comin' into town. It was fun. And I was one of those kids who was probably more comfortable amongst adults than with many of my contemporaries. These people were my friends too, and I looked forward to these gatherings, many of which would occur between Thanksgiving and New Year. We're talking about 45-50 people in this circle, here. And now, you could count the remaining members on one hand. The rest are gone. There is nothing unusual or unnatural about this. Over the course of decades, they died. Most of these deaths were quite natural. It's just age. Many of you have experienced the same thing, and the rest of you will soon, I'm sorry to say. But that predictability and universality hasn't made it any easier. I miss those guys.And I'm going to be reminded of that a lot over the next six weeks.
See ya tomorrow...
While growing up, my folks had a pretty good circle of neighbors, relatives and friends. Those in the area we'd socialize with year-round. For the others, get-togethers might take several courses. We'd always travel on vacation in the Summer, and travel plans would include stop-overs or destinations with these folks. And of course the advantage to living in DC is that one could expect a variety of people to visit us, for business or vacation. There was always someone comin' into town. It was fun. And I was one of those kids who was probably more comfortable amongst adults than with many of my contemporaries. These people were my friends too, and I looked forward to these gatherings, many of which would occur between Thanksgiving and New Year. We're talking about 45-50 people in this circle, here. And now, you could count the remaining members on one hand. The rest are gone. There is nothing unusual or unnatural about this. Over the course of decades, they died. Most of these deaths were quite natural. It's just age. Many of you have experienced the same thing, and the rest of you will soon, I'm sorry to say. But that predictability and universality hasn't made it any easier. I miss those guys.And I'm going to be reminded of that a lot over the next six weeks.
See ya tomorrow...
posted by mendip at
8:22 PM
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