December 25, 2023, Christmas Day at home (in southeastern Florida)
Winter Memories On Long Island, New YorkI have listened to "Holiday Sing Along With Mitch," which is Mitch Miller and the Gang's Christmas album, every Christmas season since its release in 1961, the year of my birth.
Nowadays, while I live in southeastern Florida, listening to it produces memories of the snowy winters of my youth on Long Island, New York, in the 1960s and 1970s, and even into the 1980s:
Christmas Eve dinner and opening presents around the tree slightly before midnight at our home with my father's side of the family; we spent Christmas Day with my mother's side of the family at my grandparents' home ... snowball fights at Bayview Elementary School ... sledding ... spearfishing for eels with a thick, ten-foot-long wooden pole on a frozen Willetts Creek, which was only about 50 feet from my house; we would chop a small hole in the ice with a hatchet, catch the eels, and then have Dad's friend with the smokehouse smoke them for us: delicious ... "skitching" with my friends: grabbing onto the bumper of a slow-moving car that was passing by and sliding down the snowy road on our feet, trying not to fall and definitely trying to avoid the car's exhaust pipe in our faces ... and skating and playing hockey with Cousin Scott after hiking through the woods to a half-frozen Southards Pond, sometimes skating until 10 p.m. by the light of the moon, with our long, thick rope nearby in case someone fell in; this was often followed by Indian food take-out, beer in coffee mugs, classical music (WQXR-FM from New York City) on the radio, and discussions of Nietzschean philosophy at Scott's apartment. ... truly halcyon days.
"Sleigh Ride" is my favorite song from this album and is the reason why I always eat pumpkin pie on Christmas Day, sometimes on Christmas Eve, but never, ever on Thanksgiving Day, as per my longstanding personal tradition. I must eat it at Christmas. Why? Because pumpkin pie is mentioned in the song "Sleigh Ride," which I considered to be a Christmas song since my age was in single digits in the 1960s. As an adult, I realized that in reality it really isn't a Christmas song, but a winter-seasonal song. Anyway, now at age 62, I continue to follow my childhood tradition. Of course, I listened to it several times today. I also ate a piece of pumpkin pie today.
https://youtu.be/TWVSS-Fy6dc?si=1ndW4zxMO5S_amEr
No comments:
Post a Comment