The Day After Thanksgiving

In my family it has been a tradition to set up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Maybe one of the reasons I love Thanksgiving is that is signifies the official start of the Christmas season for me. Christmas is almost always fun for little kids. When I think back, Christmas has always been special to me, not because of what I get but because of the festivities,  decorations, and music. Everywhere you turn there are reminders of why the season is so special--The true meaning of Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving

Today as people gathered for a meeting at work they were talking about holiday traditions. Some people had a tradition of switching from turkey to steak for Christmas. One man said that they always have seafood on Christmas eve as some sort of Italian tradition. The man I was there with said that he and his wife have two meals at Christmas, a small lunch with his family that's potluck. Then the real feast later with his wife's family which is also potluck, the difference being that his wife has 12 siblings who all chip in.

As a little kid it was all about the pie for me. The family would get together and each had a part of the meal and everyone brought a pie too. All kinds of pie, which was good because my least favorite was pumpkin. We all ate dinner together and then it was an open kitchen until round two of leftovers at about 5 or 6. Napping through football was also part of the tradition. I remember one of my cousins coming in with a turkey just after midnight. It was fresh from the pit and we took the liberty of opening it up and eating some succulent fresh meat. Oh boy, that was delicious.

One of our traditions was to have a pit roasted turkey. Slow cooked to perfection. Oh I miss it!

Thanksgiving = Favorite Holiday of the Year!! When I was little (and now)!

Tonka Trucks and Toy Story Conspiracy Theory!

They don't make 'em like they used to. When I was little I had a Tonka Truck that I got for my 3rd birthday. I played with that thing until the wheels fell off (As a note: the wheels never did fall off, but the bed rusted and cracked after hauling bucket loads of mud, dirt, sticks, and little kids for about 5 years). The old toys seem to be more durable. They were made of tough stuff like cast iron and carbonized phenolic. My uncle has a set of construction equipment that his grand kids are playing with 50 years after he did.

You don't find 3 generation toys very often. The exception would be toys that collectors collected, but those don't count because they are not played with (they are probably bitter like Stinky Pete in Toy Story 2). I guess it has to do with how much the toys are played with and in what environment too. If I had kept my truck inside it would probably still be around.

Of course being a toy has to be one of the best and worst jobs ever. There aren't many products that have to deal with the extreme conditions that toys do. They get slobbered and chewed on, they sit in cars through unbearable heat and cold, they are subject to strange kid science and menacing older siblings.

This concludes my theory on toys and why some Disney Pixar films are so popular!

ps. Look you can still buy the steel truck! What a deal!

Chocolate Pizza

Why is it that little kids have such strong opinions about what tastes good and what doesn't. They sure are picky for only being given mush and milk for the first year of life. I was no different though. I think I had my favorites, the same as any other kid. What I find most fascinating is that some foods I liked then, I don't like now and visa-versa. One  example is "mac n' cheese," which seems to be a universal little kid favorite. I liked it then. Not so much now.

What really perplexes me now is that when I was little I didn't care for pizza or chocolate (especially dark chocolate, which was and is my mother's favorite). Now the opposite is true. I really like pizza and chocolate. I didn't care for chocolate until I spent 2 years living in Scotland. It's true that European chocolate is better than american chocolate. People were always giving it to me there so I guess I grew to like it. I even like dark chocolate. As for pizza, well, I don't remember when I started to like it a lot, but I know that my non-pizza bend must have not lasted very long.

Those are just a couple of examples. Most of the stuff I thought was gross when I was little (mustard, Brussels sprouts, lettuce, tomatoes, etc.). I now find quite tolerable and sometimes very palatable. Other things I've always liked (milk-shakes, hamburgers, chicken noodle soup, sweet and sour pork, etc.). However, I can't think of anything that I liked a lot when I was little that I don't like now.

 Can anyone tell me what "Matilda" has to do with this post?

I had Good Luck Today!

When my wife and I went out for our run I found one of my favoritest books ever. It is called "Love You Forever." I haven't read that book in years and it nearly made me shed a tear when I read it again. My wife had never read it and it made her a bit weepy. I was going to wait and buy this for her when we got a kid, but since we just found it I guess we'll take it now. Oh, we literally found it. It was next to the dumpster, almost like someone was going to throw it away. No way! This book is too good. What luck!

Oh Pants!

When I was little, like most little kids, I grew at an extraordinary rate. It seems like the search for clothing that fits was a never ending quest. Especially pants. I can't count the hours that were spent at outlets and department stores combing the rack trying to find small and tall pants (Note that I did not say "Big and Tall" because I was/am not big). Most of the pants I did find were used until they became too holey and then they became cutoff shorts.

It is no wonder that I put holes in my jeans. That is a natural consequence of trying to turn regular old dead grass into a makeshift slip-n-slide. I had no problem crawling around on my knees to play with a toy car or truck. My sister and I even went through a phase where we would hold our ankles and walk around the house on our knees. I'm sure we will pay for that some day.

One of the more memorable times I ruined a pair of pants had to be one Sunday evening. Sometimes my dad would bring home an appliance box for us kids to play in. We would use it as a fort, furniture, anything our minds could imagine. We had such a box on this Sunday and I was playing in it. I was also wearing my practically new Sunday pants (A nice pair of dark trousers). It didn't take long to figure out that slacks are slick on cardboard. So I merrily spent the evening sliding around in the box. The act of sliding produced quite a bit of friction and before I knew it I had melted/burned/torn/worn a hole in each knee of my trousers. My mom was NOT happy!

Fievel Goes West

In 1991 a wonderful movie came out. called "Fievel Goes West." It is a bout a mouse who finds the adventure of a lifetime as he heads west. I think this is one of the few movies that I saw in the theater as a little kid. My dad took me to see it and it was great. I don't think I've ever seen that movie outside of the theater so that means it has been almost 20 years since I've watched it. Probably spending time with my dad is what made it so memorable.

Veterans

Today is Veterans Day. When I was growing up my mom would take all of us kids up to Idaho for a month during the summer. We would spend the time at her parents house (grandma and grandpa's). It was great to escape the heat for a month and spend time with extended family. Every summer I looked forward to the good times, good food, and good company.

One of my most memorable activities was traveling to the local cemetery and viewing the family plots on Sunday afternoons. Cemeteries are a little spooky at night, but I think during the day they offer a sort of reverent atmosphere. I was always impressed by the flags that adorned the graves of those who had served our country. That small town in southern Idaho illustrated to my young mind what it meant to be patriotic. In front of the local church there is a monument with the names of those from the community who had served in war. Several names of my great-aunts and uncles are on that monument.

I'm grateful for freedom that allowed me to live in a place where I could travel to see family, eat good food, and enjoy being a kid during those cool summers.

Turkey Run

When I was little my mom was into the tole painting thing. She had a workshop in our garage and she was always working on something. She got really into it for a while and was mass producing items to sell at boutiques and to give to family and friends. She made a lot of holiday decorations and the one I remember the most was the pair she did for thanksgiving.

She made pilgrims and turkeys. A lot of pilgrims and turkeys. That's why I remember them, because there were so many. Now that I think about it it may just have been turkeys dressed like pilgrims. Yeah I think it was. We have a picture with about two dozen turkeys sitting on our piano before they went to the pre-thanksgiving sale. Those are probably still some of he happiest turkeys ever, especially this time of year!

Jumping Jacks

When I was little one of the coolest play things was a trampoline. We had a little 3 foot exercise trampoline that was a little bit of fun for a little kid, but the real fun was the giant 14 foot trampolines that some of my friends had. It seemed like you could jump so high. A giant trampoline offered jumping, of course, but it also offered fun things like slipping, sliding, hiding, and sleeping enjoyment. One of my favorite trampoline activities was sleeping out on it.

My cousins had a trampoline and we had many nights sleeping out on the trampoline. It was really fun to get in a slick nylon sleeping bag and jump around. I also enjoyed looking up at the stars. My cousins lived in the country and you could look up and see all the stars. Constellations became fascinating to me because of how well we could see them there.

The most amazing thing about sleeping on a trampoline is that everyone ends up in the middle. The weight of sleeping bodies turns a trampoline into a giant bowl and everyone just slides in their slick bags right toward the middle. This probably helped to keep us warmer. I learned later that we were always cold because there is no insulation under you when you sleep on a trampoline. Burrr!

Play Back

When I was little one of my favorite movies was Home Alone 2. Macaulay Culkin was so clever. He managed to set up the most awesome booby traps and execute them. My traps never seemed to work out as clever as his. Like the star character, Kevin, I thought that it was great fun to record myself and here the playback fast or slow. I did this on an old Dictaphone cassette player that my mom gave me. I also found enjoyment in recording the radio. I would try to catch my favorite songs so that I could listen to them over and over again.

As I already posted I used to listen to books on cassette too. My mom also had this old record of some old folk or Brothers Grimm stories. My favorite was "7 At A Blow" about a boy who killed 7 flies as they were buzzing around his sandwich one day. He made a belt that read, "Seven at a Blow" and as he wore it it lead to all sorts of fanciful adventures. My mom also had a cassette that was called "Church Mice" and it had some of my favorite church songs being sung in really high voices. It was like Alvin and the Chipmunks singing hymns. That was fun.

I wonder if I could find any of my old tape recordings. I'll bet there's some weird stuff on them.

Rainbow Hoodie

When I was little I had a rainbow hooded sweatshirt that I wore to school from about first grade through 5th grade. My mom gave it to me and I think it was one of her old ones. As I recall it was mostly black but had a rainbow pattern on the edges of the sleeves and hood. I could have a completely false memory of this, but I, at least, know that I had a huge zip-up hoodie and wore it until there were holes in it. My mother had a rainbow umbrella too and on a rainy day I was permitted to take it to school once.

I say once because, like most little kids, I liked to jump in puddles. So what's the point of giving a kid an umbrella if he is going to come home soaked anyway? I had a habit of getting my shoes and socks wet at school. We were not supposed to or allowed to play in the irrigation water at school. In primary school I was one of the fastest boys. I thought that if I ran really fast and got my feet out of the way of the splashes that it would be okay to run through the irrigation.

I think I actually was clever enough to avoid the really deep spots and run though "dry" a couple of times. What is the fun of running through water though if you're not going to get a little wet. I found myself justifying a little splash here and another there. Before I knew it my mom was telling me to take off my wet shoes and socks and to not play in the water anymore. Bummer. It was fascinating to me how the next day my shoes would be really stiff. Do you know the best way to get stiff shoes unstiff again? Get them wet!