Long Island Memories

December 25, 2024, Christmas Day at home (in southeastern Florida)

Winter Memories On Long Island, New York

I 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. I still have the original album from 1961, plus a later release also on vinyl, plus two CDs of the album, the second CD repurchased because I misplaced the first CD during the Christmas season.

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, spear the eels that were buried in the mud, and then have my 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, but never, ever on Thanksgiving Day, as per my longstanding personal tradition.

Why? Pumpkin pie is mentioned in the song "Sleigh Ride," which I considered to be a Christmas song when my age was in single digits in the later 1960s. As an adult, I realized, I think in the mentally foggy 1990s, that in reality, this song technically isn't a Christmas song but a winter-seasonal song.

Here is a link to my personally memorable song:

https://youtu.be/TWVSS-Fy6dc?si=1ndW4zxMO5S_amEr

Now, at age 63, I am once again following my childhood tradition today (December 25, 2024), as I have done every holiday season since the late 1960s. Many thanks go to my wonderful wife for making me this pumpkin pie (from scratch) to satisfy my decades-long, personal tradition. I will be enjoying a fairly large piece soon. Of course, I will continue to follow my longstanding tradition during every future holiday season.

By coincidence, this year, today marks National Pumpkin Pie Day, which date changes every year.

I also recently realized that pumpkin pie is also mentioned in the Christmas song "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree."

Aileen Santos