Random Thoughts from a Restless Mind

It’s Christmas morning and I’m thinking of home. I mean, of course I am. It’s Christmas. Even if you can’t BE home you can still GO home, right? What else did you expect? Today isn’t the time to think about ideas or issues of the day. Come on…it’s Christmas! So it’s to home I go. To take a moment…just a moment…and peer through the windows of the home that lives in my heart. Come with me, won’t you? But bundle up now. It may be warm around the hearth but it’s awfully chilly standing outside at the window.

Off to Southbridge we go. Careful as we drive in. Lebanon Street was pretty narrow even back in the days of the original VW Bug. Even those big old Chevy wagons seem like mid-size cars when you park one next to, say, a Suburban. Look at all of the lights on the trees! They’re all colors, too; none of that pristine modern “tiny white lights only” stuff. And the snow! Southbridge was in a little snow zone in central Massachusetts. Heck, it seemed like every town north of New Jersey was in a snow belt back then. It looks pretty, all lit up by the street lights.

Here we are, 96 Lebanon Street. The house is so small! Look, the carport is still there. This must be BK, “before Kerstin.” Dad hasn’t turned it into a family room and a bedroom for the boys yet. The upstairs windows are all dark, but there’s a light on in the living room. Here, squeeze through the bushes and we can see in the front window. There’s Mom wrapping our gifts while Dad is putting all the decorations on the tree. I’d almost forgotten: when we went to bed on Christmas Eve there were no gifts out and the tree was bare. My parents would be up all night helping Santa bring Christmas home. Dad just opened a box of leaded tinsel and began to place the strands one at a time until you could barely see the lights and the decorations through the silver “rain”!

It’s Christmas morning now. Randy and I are sprinting up the front hall stairs so that means that Kerstin has joined us and we are now four. Randy is leading the charge, of course. He was always up first on Christmas day, dragging me out of bed and then jumping up and down on Tracey and Kerstin until they got out of bed and we all headed in to Mom and Dad’s room. We had to wait for Dad to to downstairs first. There he is! Oh my, he really looks tired; he must have pulled a near all-nighter. In goes the plug and on go the lights, and Dad is setting up his camera, complete with that silver plate-surrounded flash bulb that instantly blinded us as we tore down the stairs and around the corner.

Santa made it to 96 Lebanon Street again!

Did you have visiting family, or did you travel to a relative’s house on Christmas Day? Gama and Gramp always came to visit us in Southbridge for Christmas dinner. Just peak around the corner of the house over here by the Pingeton’s and you can see Gramp’s Cadillac pulling up. I honestly can’t remember if they brought more presents, only that it just wasn’t a whole Christmas until they arrived. We’re all excited. Even from all the way over here you can see Dad smile as my Mom hugs her parents.

Here, take my hand and let’s take a walk over to 30 Kirkbrae Drive. My family has moved to Rhode Island now. Don’t worry, it’s only a short walk. Christmas is a time of magic and wonder. We’ll be there in just a couple of minutes. Whoa…I forgot how much bigger 30 Kirkbrae was than 96 Lebanon. Same colored Christmas lights on the bushes, though!

It looks like we, the older three of us, are in college which means that Kerstin is in high school. We lost Gramp a few years ago. Everyone says he died of a broken heart. I know losing him broke mine. We can come right up to the big picture window here on the porch. Gama’s there, too. She lives with Mom and Dad and Kerstin now. We’re all hanging that same leaded tinsel on the tree, one strand at a time! Dad gave up the all-nighters years ago but somehow has managed to find that tinsel even though the country banned it years ago.

Did I ever tell you about the White family tradition of “rejecting gifts”? Mom wanted everyone to love every gift. If you really didn’t like something you could politely say so and decline it. The catch: there would be no substitute or replacement gift. Poor Kerstin seemed to have at least one gift rejected every year until she came home as a college freshman with Notre Dame swag! She batted 1.000 that year. Let’s walk around to the back porch where the window is closer to the tree so that we can hear the banter a little better. Dad is still handing out gifts one at a time. You had to “ooo and ahhh” over everyone’s gifts and wait your turn. My folks were super generous; some years we would be at the gifting thing for hours. Oh my, it looks like it’s the Christmas with most famous “rejection” ever. Mom finally caved and got the boys jean jackets for Christmas.

But she brought the wrong jackets! Wrangler with fluffy lining instead of regular Levi’s. Randy opened his first and shook his head. “Really Mom?! This was the gift you couldn’t get wrong” as he pushed it back under the tree. Dad handed me an identical gift. I looked at Mom and raised an eyebrow. She nodded and I simply put it back under the tree. Everyone is laughing about it, even Mom. She felt so badly that for the first, and only time, she replaced the rejected gift, sending Randy to the mall to make the exchange. She didn’t even blink when he upgraded, coming home with Calvin Klein instead of Levi’s. Here, come a little closer and you can smell the bacon that Dad is cooking up in the kitchen.

Oh, you’re shivering. I’m sorry. It’s just that it’s so warm in there that, well, I can feel it even out here. Are you OK? I’d like to take you to one more Christmas home if you’re up for it. Yes? Great. Another quick walk, just around this corner. Ah, yes, here we are. 29123 Lincoln Road. My little family has landed in Greater Cleveland of all places. Each year our house would be decorated with Beth’s flair; sometimes even with colored lights in the bushes out front!

If we step up to the window over by Cliff’s house we’ll have a great view. There we are, Beth and I and our three kids. It looks like Danny is maybe 13 or so which makes Megan 11 and Randy 9. And whaddaya know, there we all are in the “dancing room”, our name for the living room pre-furniture, and sitting on the couch are my Mom and Dad, now Gram and Gramp! Kerstin lowered the boom on Gram after she decided that none of her children had adequately invited her and Gramp to spend the holidays with them and sulked off to NYC to see the Rockettes.

Hilariously describing their companions as “all the other parents whose children didn’t invite them for Christmas”!

We’ve come full circle. Thanks to Kerstin very fourth year we host my folks for Christmas. There I am (look how skinny!) handing our gifts one at a time. Oh, and no rejecting gifts in this house. Oh no! Beth always hated that little White Family quirk and put the kibosh on it at our first Christmas together. No matter, though. Come closer and put your ear up against the window. It’s cold, I know, but it’ll be worth it. That’s my Dad laughing! And Mom helping my Randy with a bow. In a minute or two I’ll head into the kitchen and fire up some bacon and 29123 Lincoln will be filled with all of the warmth of 30 Kirkbrae and 96 Lebanon. Gosh, it’s so good to see everyone, Mom and Dad, Gama and Gramp, my siblings, Beth and all of my kids…together and happy and warm. Those were good times, at home.

The windows seem to be getting blurry. No? Or maybe it’s me. Something in my eye, maybe. That must be it. I think it’s time I get you back home anyway. Get you warmed up, in case you might want to take a walk of your own. You know, a walk home. Home for Christmas. Christmas is a magic time, you know. Home will be just around the corner. I’m sure everyone is still there, at least today, on Christmas, waiting for you.

Merry Christmas…

*A respectful nod and thanks to the late Dick Feagler and his annual column “A Christmas Visit to Aunt Ida’s”.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 25th, 2024 at 6:37 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.