INTRODUCTION
Sons:
well, here we are, almost Christmas and I have a couple of doozies to tell you about this AM…I say doozies cos as a kid Mom and Dad come through on these two occasions as the wonderful parents that they were…I will save the next one for Roman Numeral V…never wavering even through my adulthood from the kind and generous parents they were at heart…from early on, my Mom and Dad always had my back and were always proud of me even when I faltered as an adult, they were there for me…and I sure did give them pause on occasion when I would stumble and fall, they were always there, for me and that support and encouragement from them would always come through in phone calls and in person when I could manage a visit…and even in 1979, when I was 29 years young and I took up residence with them, living in San Francisco we all lived together for a couple of years before I left and moved to Denver…we, all had a great time, living together for those couple of years…no conflicts, at all ever…just Mom and Dad and me, living together joking and laughing together harmoniously…
I had just graduated college at the University of Texas (Austin) and driven cross-country to go live with them while I figured out my next move in life…due to a couple of false starts, it was always a question whether or not, I would go back to college and finish with a degree…Mom and Dad always had faith that I would go back and finish what I had started in 1969 by enrolling in college at Menlo College in Menlo Park, California, right out of high school in St. Louis, Missouri…so I did graduate in 1979, ten years later…Mom and Dad flew in for my graduation ceremony at Texas…we were all proud of me for getting it done finally and throughout those ten years, Mom and Dad never lost faith that I would turn it around and go back to finish out college…
anywhoo, I did and they were delirious with happiness for me cos they always believed in the value of a college degree for me so it was a huge milestone when I finally graduate in 1979 so Onwards through the fog as Oat Willie sez
I posted the the below quote since it is something I learned how to do early on in my adulthood, present company excepted, meaning my Mom and Dad since I did care deeply about how they perceived me and always did:
“ I do not give a shit about what other people think of me…
I learned a long time ago that I cannot control that
I care about what I think and what I think
doesn’t mean shit to a tree.”
Moving on from the above Note to Self, I do want to re-tell story of my parents and a Christmas morning in late 1950s on Mercer Island, Seattle…must have 8 or 9 years old, at the time…very murky and hard to be precise from this remove since it was approximately 65 years ago, this Christmas…the memories from that time are still sharp and focused and I can still feel the excitement and anticipation of that particular Christmas morning so when I re-tell this story, I can still feel those feelings I experienced then as a child
so let’s get to it without further adieu
This particular Christmas on Mercer Island started out as any other Christmas in the lead up to it. I was doing my normal kid stuff, being in the woods and just generally, farting around that Winter.
It should be noted that back then, we lived on a dirt road with only two houses on it. Our house was situated on about what I now know to be about five acres and the adjacent house or our next door neighbors was about the same acreage. Both houses had the acres fenced in with a shared stable. In this case, our shared stable consisted of a roofed over structure and our shared stable was set on the property line and fence line. They were not a big stable but big enough to house some livestock if we ever decided to go that route which at the time, we did not use it or the acreage for anything. Our neighbor did use it for a Shetland pony that they owned.
Now, I have set the scene of our home and acreage. It should be noted that that back in the late 1950s, Mercer Island was very rural and wild with forests and trees everywhere. Our house and our neighbor’s house had been cleared and fenced when we bought our house. Mercer Island, back then, was a paradise for me as a kid. I could climb trees, walk anywhere since there were no roads, to speak of. It should be noted here, that at the time (late 1950s), people from Seattle would drive to Mercer Island to release their unwanted cats.So back then there was a big population of what we now call feral cats but we called them wild cats. We actually adopted a wild cat. She lived in the garage. We fed her and gave her water. She was by no means an indoor cat. We never let her inside the house but she was amenable to us kids so we could pet her and she allowed us to play with her. She eventually had kittens in the garage. She would let us play with the kittens. I do not know what happened to the kittens. I just think now that the kittens became wild and became part of the population of feral cats. We were very laissez faire about her and her kittens, at the time. We, also had a dog that we acquired while living in Salt Lake City and she moved with us Mercer Island. She was named Baa-Baa since I could not, as a child, pronounce the name Mom and Dad gave her. It was some foreign name so she became Baa-Baa.
Anywhoo enough of this setting it up for y’all. Onto to the story at hand.
ONE CHRISTMAS MORN in the Late 1950s
I had gone to bed that Christmas Eve, absolutely not expecting anything special or extraordinary about Christmas Day. As a family, we usually opened one present or one stocking on Christmas Eve. We all did that and I went to bed. Little did I know what was going to happen in a few short hours. Typically, I was always excited on Christmas Eve after opening our stockings or one present and could never quite manage to fall asleep but I eventually did.
I can vividly remember waking up on Christmas Morn, putting on slippers and running down the hall to my parent’s bedroom to wake them up so we could begin, as a family, opening up our presents. Strangely enough, my parents were not in bed. I can remember that this puzzled me since I was always up first and I had to always wake them up. As I stood there, momentarily confused, I could hear voices in the living room and not just Mom and Dad’s voices but another unrecognizable voice. If I recall correctly, it must have been about 4:00 AM. So two puzzling things, as I stood in the doorway of Mom and Dad’s bedroom:
1, Mom and Dad already up and in the living room
2. Mom and Dad low talking in the living room with an unrecognizable voice, a stranger’s voice
I run down the hall to the living room and see Mom and Dad on one couch talking with a stranger on the opposite couch. I stopped dead in my tracks, stunned to see them with this stranger. Their low talking stopped and Mom and Dad, turned to me and both said: “Alex, go out to the stable.” They did not have to ask me twice. I turned and ran to the back door while wearing just my pajamas and slippers. Out the back door, I go, running as fast as I can to our stable. And lo and behold, there in the stable was a Shetland Pony that I grokked immediately was mine. There, in the dark and cold of a Christmas Morn, I stood in awe looking at his pony. So I calmed myself down and I approached her quietly and began to stroke her coat. She did not flinch as I hugged her neck and let her smell my hand as I nuzzled her nose as she got used to the smell of me. After a long time of me hugging and stroking her coat, I was finally able to leave her in her stall and walk back to the house.
When I got back to the living room, Mom and Dad introduced me to the strange man and I joined them on the couch and Mom and Dad told me how they had managed to arrange this Christmas Morn surprise for me with the strangers help who left his family at home to transport our pony from his ranch on Mercer Island to our house at this hour. I do not need to tell y’all how happy and grateful I was on that Christmas Morn to him and Mom and Dad for this wonderful gift.