Is Christmas Pagan in Origin?

The short, accurate answer is No.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry6zIpmX78c

 

Friday Fiction: Oaken Smials

OAKEN SMIALS

 

There is a place that I can go

When I am sad and feeling low.

It is not far; it's close as thought;

It is a dream that I have caught.

 

It is a place called Oaken Smials.

I go to visit it a while

When I feel blue. I close my eyes,

I muse a bit, and there it lies.

 

It stands upon a lawn with trees

That shade, and dance with every breeze.

Its frame is oak, and granite stones

Support that frame like sturdy bones.

 

It has tower and tunnel, hall and stair,

And stained glass twinkles here and there.

Brass gleams on doors and window frames;

A hearthstone wards the chimney flames.

 

Blue china, in the kitchen, glows,

By pewter mugs ranged row on row.

The larder's full of food and drink

Of all the good kind one could think.

 

There are comfy chairs and shelves of books

And window seats in hidden nooks;

Grandfather clocks chiming hours keep;

There, soft white beds that nurture sleep.

 

There are hidden cellars and attic rooms;

There are sunny spots and shady glooms.

The house is snug, yet somehow spacious,

Its plan is cozy, but capacious.

 

But always I must leave that place

And present life and troubles face,

Though I return with heart renewed,

And I know the dream is far from through.

 

For dreams have come true before now.

And once again I make my vow:

That Oaken Smials shall one day be,

And there we'll dwell, most joyously.

Notes

I've had a vision of a perfect house for many years, starting perhaps with reading the poem The Shiny Little House(by Nancy M. Hayes?) in Fourth Grade, deepened with descriptions of Badger's House in The Wind in the Willows, Merlin's Cottage in The Sword in the Stone, and of course Bag End in The Hobbit (odd, that; I think I read all of those in the same year; definitely in middle school). Even now I try to make the Guest House as close an approximation of Oaken Smials as I can; it is like a pale,gleaming shadow of that Platonic ideal. I wrote this poem ... oh, years ago now, probably as far back as the Eighties.

Illustration from the 1949 Childcraft

Theology Thursday: A Core Corp from the Archives.

You could probably put quite a few more by C. S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, and G. K. Chesterton in there, but I thought I'd only include their more concentrated books. The volumes are quite scattered over my shelves; I thought I'd see what they'd look like in one place.

Well-Armored

 

The Odd and Somewhat Distressing Tale of Mrs. Beasley (A Christmas Memory)

I probably don’t have to explain Mrs. Beasley to a certain vintage of my peers. She was a doll owned by Buffy on the show Family Affair (1966 -1971). As such, she was a plaything, but also an imaginary friend whom Buffy pretended to talk to and whom she supposed to have a life of her own. The idea of an imaginary friend was a sort of uncanny concept to us when we were very young. Mrs. Beasley somehow partook of the weirdness of voodoo dolls and ventriloquist dummies; this was not helped by her wide-eyed stare of happy madness. We did develop our own imaginary friends in time, but they were “imaginary imaginary friends”, if you get my meaning. We were never deluded into actually believing they were real.

All of which would be neither here nor there if it weren’t for one very early SMI Christmas party. It was a grand bash held once a year at the enormous New Braunfels Wurstfest Hall. Tables and benches filled the enormous space, barbecue plates and soda were supplied, and every employee got gifts for himself and his wife, and a bag of hard candy (I particularly loved the rare hard licorice candy, wrapped in silver paper) or a book of Life Savers for each of his kids. There was an enormous fake sausage at one end of the hall to explore and the grown-ups danced and Santa appeared on a dais and was available for photo ops with the kiddies. We still have several of those pictures. Christmas music was bellowed over the loudspeakers, and I think this was the first place I ever heard Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree. We just wandered around in a daze trying to amuse ourselves in an atmosphere of beer drinking and cigarette smoke. There was little adult supervision; we just had to remember where ‘our’ table was.

There was one other feature of the party and this was the ‘drawing.’ As I recall it, there was a big pile of prizes on a raised stage. Names were put in the tumbler and drawn, and the winner could go home with a nice bonus present. I think you could choose it, but it may have been more random than that. And here is where Mrs. Beasley enters the tale. A Mrs. Beasley doll was quite prominent on the prize pile, and I conceived a strange desire to have her and a wild hope that we might win her.

My parents, once I unveiled this thought, were rather distressed. Pop, in particular; I can imagine what dark suspicions seethed in his mind. Why would one of his sons want a doll? And what would people think if he went up to claim such a prize? Everyone knew he had only boys at the time; would he take a ribbing for harboring a sissy? The idea was flat out denied. So why did I want a spooky Mrs. Beasley? I probably couldn’t express exactly why even at the time.

I certainly didn’t want a ‘dolly’ for dress-ups or tea parties or anything like that, and I never would have asked them to expend any actual money for Mrs. Beasley. Now, for free, sure maybe, and she was the most interesting thing on the table. I’m rather ashamed to say its rather feeble allure may have been mostly merchandising; if Mrs. Beasley was in our grasp, we would be one degree closer to the glamorous world of television, a tangible link to the TV Time Loop. Perhaps we could bestow it as a present on one of our cousins and win kudos that way. But only after prising those square glasses off her face for use as a prop in our own toy ‘adventures’, perhaps perched on Chester O’Chimp’s nose.

In the end, we were all spared the embarrassment. Pop did not win the drawing for Mrs. Beasley (I have the vague impression he got something else, but I can’t tell you at this distance what it might have been), and the incident was put behind us. I don’t think it helped my reputation as a shy, strange boy very much, except to reinforce it. But it is a very early example of my franchise involvement and toy fixation.

Thanks

 

Did Someone Say Toys?

"There is only one reason why all grown-up people do not play with toys: and it is a fair reason. The reason is that playing with toys takes so very much more time and trouble than anything else. Playing, as children mean playing, is the most serious thing in the world. And as soon as we have small duties or small sorrows we have to abandon to some extent so enormous and ambitious a plan of life. We have enough strength for politics and commerce and art and philosophy: we do not have enough strength for play. This is the truth which everyone will recognize who, as a child, has ever played with anything at all; anyone who has played with bricks, anyone who has played with dolls, anyone who has played with tin soldiers. My journalistic work, which earns money, is not pursued with such awful persistency as that work which earned nothing."

"Broadly then, what keeps adults from joining in children's games is, generally speaking, not that they have no pleasure in them; it is simply that they have no leisure for them. It is that they cannot afford the expenditure of toil and time and consideration of so grand and grave a scheme. I have been myself attempting for some time past to complete a play in a small toy theatre ...though I have worked much harder at the toy theatre than I ever worked on any tale or article, I cannot finish it; the work seems too heavy for me. I have to break off and betake myself to lighter employments; such as [writing] the biographies of great men."

"All this gives me a feeling touching the real meaning of immortality. In this world we cannot have pure pleasure. This is partly because pure pleasure would be dangerous to us and to our neighbors. But it is partly because pure pleasure is a great deal too much trouble. If I am ever in any other and better world, I hope that I shall have enough time to play with nothing but toy theatres; and I hope that I shall have enough divine and superhuman energy to act at least one play in them without a hitch."

--from "The Toy Theatre," in Tremendous Trifles (1909), by G. K. Chesterton.

"I Want My Granny's Records"

I mentioned a few posts ago in November Nanny’s Christmas records. Today by pure chance one came up in my queue on You Tube. I recognized it immediately. I always knew her records were part of a larger series; a bit of research filled out the history.  “A series of 7 Christmas albums produced exclusively for Firestone Tire and Rubber Company between 1962 and 1968.” They are all available to listen to on You Tube. She had Volumes 3 and 4. Where they are now and who has them, I don't know. But I can listen to the whole series now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_V_br4i-yo&list=RDo_V_br4i-yo&start_radio=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWURmvE7EzU&list=RDo_V_br4i-yo&index=2

 

2020 Diary: Winter of Discontent

12/8/2020: Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Alarm went off at 6 AM, and I lay in bed for about 20 minutes, then began getting ready. Out the door at 7 AM. Rosary, then mass.

Home at 9:10 AM. Starting breakfast for Kam, and myself. Ate, prayed, and then lay down a while. Up at about 12:30 PM and made a sandwich and ate some broccoli salad for lunch. Finished reading Omoo. At about 3 PM Susan and Andy come home; they have tested positive for Covid-19 (almost inevitable with Fred waltzing around like he was), and now must quarantine until the 15^th. In the meantime, Kam and I will stay away from them as much as possible, but I think we’ll get it anyway. I ran over to FD about 4 PM to see if they had any vitamins (they say C, D, and zinc are good to take on board) but they don’t carry any. So I opened an account at HEB for delivery and ordered some for us all, including some staples (juice, soup, detergent) that Susan asked me to get. It should be delivered tomorrow between 8 and 9 AM. Made Kam corndogs and taquitos for supper in a sort of long-distance operation. Started reading Cossack Fairy Tales, watched Green Acres (a clip show), then read Bible. Now a little after 10 PM, so some more reading, then bed, I think.

 

12/9/2020: Mom’s Birthday. UP at 5 AM, and knew I was just awake. Prayers and Bible. I know that without my daily routine of fixing supper, helping Kameron, etc. (knocked out of kilter by the quarantine thing) my day will have little rhythm, so I must figure out what to do with my time. Writing and editorial work suggests itself; also a daily viewing of my DVDs. It would be prudent to stop going to the dollar stores and to church for a bit. Hopefully by Christmas I shall be good to go again.

So. A little before 8 AM I go out to put some recyclables in the bin and wait for my HEB delivery, and I am just in time to see them driving away. I put S&A’s stuff on the kitchen porch and take my vitamins in. I think I’m going to have trouble resisting the Vitamin C ones; they’re just like little orange slice gummies! Make ramen for breakfast and take my medicine. For lunch I have raviolis – eventually 4 cans! Anxiety and boredom. Trimmed my beard; my chin looks a little pointed now.  John called me about 1 PM and we talked a while. About 5:30 PM they call me for some lasagna – it’s different, made with jalapenos or salsa verde or something – and a breadstick. In the evening I finish the Cossack Fairy Tales, then break down and order soda, cookies, and pies from HEB, deliverable tomorrow. But then nothing until next week. I hope. Anxiety and boredom, although I feel fine so far. Prayed rosary; finished at 8 PM. Ready for Green Acres at 8:30 PM. Afterwards read BC comic books then settled down to sleep.

 

12/10/2020: Up at 5:30 AM after the usual intervals of waking and dozing. Spent a few minutes assessing my health, trying to figure out if it was any worse than any other waking on a cold autumn morning and finally thinking that it wasn’t. Prayers and Bible. Dressed, took aspirin and vitamins. Now almost 6 AM.

Went out at 8 AM to wait for my delivery. Started my rosary while waiting. About 8:20 AM the delivery woman came. No Just Peachy HEB soda, but everything else, including Very Cherry Fruit Cocktail. It was delicious, and I gave a can to S&A later. Started reading lots more BC. At 10 AM I went and got the stuff for stew out of the garage, where Andy had set it ready, and started stewing. Watched a bit of Patton. At 12:51 PM John came over and dropped off a fruitcake (not the little bar fruitcakes, but a whole big round one). The stew (with pork roast, mushrooms, onions, carrots rice, and taters) was ready at 3 PM, which was earlier than I imagined, being made as it was on my little burner. And yummy it was, too. Been eating pumpkin pie and drinking diet soda on and off all day, as well. It’s now 8:30 PM and Green Acres is on.  Bed soon thereafter.

 

12/11/2020: Up about 6 AM, I guess, and then prayers, Bible, and rosary. More B.C., Perry Mason, and pumpkin pie for breakfast, then vitamins and medicine. About 11 AM Susan and Andy asked that, if I was going to the store, I would get them some cereal (either Apple Jacks or Cinnamon Toast Crunch). Since I had been going to go maybe Saturday, I went ahead and went, getting more fruit cocktail, some garlic pepper and lemon pepper, a jar of cheese dip, and paper towels as well. (They had CTC but not AJ.)

Over the afternoon I ate a can of fruit cocktail and the dip with Ritz crackers. Got through all the BC comics (there are more duplicates than I remembered).

I had messaged Kenny about our situation yesterday, and today he replied. He asked me to be careful (as if I wouldn’t be – he was just showing his concern). I don’t think anyone quite understands my position. 1) I don’t want to die. 2) On the other hand, except for any suffering I might undergo, I don’t really care if I die. 3) Ever since my TIA, I feel all my time has been a bonus. 4) In that bonus time, I have been baptized and joined my church, written and published my book, so I have accomplished my life needs and ambition. 5) I’m next in line after Mike to go. 6) I don’t have a spouse or children to leave behind to be cared for, although I do have family who would mourn me. 7) If I do die now, I will be spared quite a bit of suffering and stupidity, which I feel is coming. 8) Although I would probably miss some good things to come, I don’t think they would compare to Heaven. 9) Suppose this world was the only thing there is, and this life is all there is, and death was simply the cessation of existence. So what? No life would be long enough to satisfy you and you’d still have to die sometime. If the world were pointless natural development, what inherent point would life or death have then? 10) But I do believe in God, Heaven, and the ultimate family reunion, so death is not despair to me. 11) If I die now, I don’t have to see anyone else I love die while we’re still here in the muddle.

At 5:30 PM I called in and got the leftover pork stew for supper. Watched some “Pride and Prejudice” on TCM. Saw a short of Mark Hamill on Laurel and Hardy on TCM and passed it on to Kenny on FB. Now a little after 7 PM, and I am stuffed with stew.  Posted on NOT. Put the heater on as it had dipped into the 50’s. Bed about 9:30 PM.

 

12/12/2020: Woke up a little after 2 AM and spent about 20 minutes writing out a dream. The room feels hot. The outside temp is 50 degrees and only going to get warmer so I’m cutting off the heater, then trying to get back to sleep. Posted “Finding Dori” on NOT. Left arm a little numb. 3:45 AM and going to try to lie down again.

Up at 6:30 AM and decide that I’m up. Prayers (with a bit of added earnestness) and Bible.

What a strange day, rather wandering and unfocussed. Watched Popeye’s “Spinach Fer Britain” on TCM at 9 AM. Beef ramen for breakfast. Gathered quotes from Lafcadio Hearn into the Commonplace book. Posted on NOT. Ate rather too much over the day, including drinking about 5 cans of diet soda; sent over a slice of pumpkin pie for Kameron at about 2 PM. Asked John earlier via e-mail to suggest a writing project, and he said perhaps a Goldfire hard reboot, so I wrote a page or so and found it diverting. Watched bits of “The Man Who Came to Dinner”. Prayed rosary about 5:20 PM. Found and messaged to Kenny some pictures of Mom’s Shirley Temple doll. It’s now 7:16 PM, and I’ve had a chicken ramen with Ritz crackers for supper and taken my medicine …

Susan just called. Andy’s Aunt Janet dropped by some stew and cornbread and Susan asked if I wanted any. Put on my mask and took my little pot to the door and she brought me back some stew (I didn’t want cornbread right now; too full). Good stew; lots of meat. Susan says Andy is feeling rather low at the moment. Now 7:42 PM. Watched most of “A Matter of Life and Death” with David Niven, Kim Hunter, Raymond Massey, etc. Some reading then bed.

 

12/13/2020: Third Sunday in Advent, and for the good of all I’m stuck at home again. After waking up in the early hours of the morning to record a dream and make some notes for “Koppa” (a try at a Goldfire reboot) I got up about 5:30 AM, said my prayers, read my Bible, prayed my rosary, and then felt that yes, I would live for a bit yet. Straightened the house, showered, dressed, and now at 6:30 AM I feel ready for YouTube mass.

The day pootled along. I kept a fast till noon, Susan called me just before noon, and said that there was ramen, cup soup, and bread awaiting me in the laundry room, which I went and got. She also told me that Andy had a very upset stomach, though whether that was the Covid or his yearly sinuses is a bit of a toss-up; probably one is aggravating the other. Made ramen sandwiches for lunch and watched some old Simpsons. The day trundled along: I ate cookies, drank soda, and finished off the fruitcake. Tried to watch the new Fox animations. Sigh. About 9:30 PM tried to play some DQ8 but I dropped the controller and I think it’s now broken. Checked the “What’s Where” and the box with the other controllers is in the attic. Of course. Probably stuck there until Andy’s well enough to get it for me. No games, no DVDs for a while. It’s now 11:10 PM. What will tomorrow bring?

 

12/14/2020: Up at 6 AM. I believe that having the heater on may be raising my temperature and causing a proliferation of dreams. Anyway, I believe I was saved by a voice in my dream from making a mistake, call it my conscience if you will, or perhaps even a spiritual intervention. We are left with these ambiguities, so that we are free to make a choice. Prayers and Bible, then got dressed.  Looked at FB and caught up diary. It’s now 6:46 AM. Decided neither to walk to DG or order from HEB today.

Wrote a bit on Koppa again. Went out at 9 AM, saw the garage was open, so started wash. Grabbed some eggs for my breakfast ramen. Listened to GGACP. Ate cookies on and off through the day. Switched load at 10:30 AM, the at 11:30 AM into the dryer. About 4 PM Susan called and gave me the leftover stew from Aunt Janet, two salads, and some peanut butter cookies (also from Aunt Janet). I had just started watching the Laurel and Hardy marathon that had begun at 11 AM. Andy called me at 6:30 PM and asked if I would take out the bins, and I said yes of course I would. It was already dark, of course, but it seemed eerily late, much later than it should. Perhaps it was because how cold and quiet the neighborhood was. Watched “Way Out West”. Rosary at 9 PM. Watching some DQ 11 on YouTube, and it seems to have commercials every 5 minutes! I’ve started reading “Oliver Twist”, which will probably be my bedtime reading then off to sleep. A cold day; I’ve had the heater on for all but two hours. Finally drifted off a little after 11 PM.

Notes

Looking back reminds me of the already quickly fading memories of the worst of Covid and the quarantines. If I could give my past self any advice, it would be stop being so dramatic and stop eating so much sugar. Nowadays I get about one delivery per week with HEB (with much healthier stuff, I hope); it’s weird to think of a time when I was more hesitant about it. The Goldfire reboot only got to about two chapters (both here on the Niche now). Enjoyable, but hard to sustain. For all the Green Acres I was watching (it was a novelty at the time) I have very few memories of the show plots, just of their routine shticks and the ambience of their times. I have had my seasonal indulgences of pumpkin pie, eggnog, and fruitcake, and the cold weather has thoughts being lightly turned to stew and chicken and dumplings. After what seemed like a very long summer and a very short fall (it’s not technically winter until Dec. 22), it’s heater weather again.

 

Knock on Woodpecker

Recently, MeTV started adding Woody Woodpecker cartoons to its line-up, sprinkling them throughout Toon In With Me and having a whole hour of Walter Lantz cartoons on Saturday morning. lying like a suspiciously moist fragrant pile between Popeye and Bugs Bunny. It's bad enough that there's already MGM cartoons between them; at least the Tom and Jerry shorts can be enlivened with Harman-Ising shorts. I've never found any redeeming features in Woody Woodpecker; his conflicts with Wally Walrus and Buzz Buzzard seem simply a clash between idiots and rogues. The animation seems primitive, the humor sub-Stoogish. Bugs Bunny's taking carrots and Jerry's quest for cheese seem merely efforts for survival; Woody is a force of chaotic destruction, proactively trying to steal and destroy anything from everyone, casually wrecking whole forests for gluttony's sake. His associate Andy Panda is sickeningly sweet and easy-going. You feel even Micky Mouse would find him cloying. All of which is to say I disapprove of MeTV watering the stock. I only have so much time in the morning to cheer me up; Woody Woodpecker ... does not.

Update:

My brother John points out that as contemptible as we found the animated Woody Woodpecker, we rather enjoyed his comic book incarnation, which we we usually read in Gold Key Digests.

Wish Fulfillment: Five Years of the Wish List (Movies and Series)

And with this post we come to the end of Wish List fulfillment. I'm sure I've probably missed some items. The reason I usually buy a movie or a series is, paradoxically, so I don't have to see them, that is so I'm not worried about catching them on TV, sometimes at an inconvenient time. When I have felt that I must watch them, because they don't come on that often. Besides having some rather niche films that don't get played that often (I've found it unnecessary to have any Harry Potter or Marvel  Films; just wait a few weeks and there they are on TV again) I have stuff that I don't just enjoy but for which I feel I have a deep affection.

I ... I must confess I've made another list. Wish List items that I never got. Luckily, I don't feel compelled to share them. They can be seen on the Niche elsewhere, if you want. But these posts have let me feel more grateful for what I do have, and to realize have fortunate I really have been.