Saturday, December 18, 2010

Christmas Countdown : 07

more Christmas ephemera


These candles were very popular in the mid 1950's. We had a set. I still have the Santa and the tree, but we didn't have the elf - we had a snowman.





Mary Pickford changes the name of Hollywood Blvd.in the mid to late 1920's


Santa Claus Lane gets lit up





Oh, no - animated gifs don't work. Bah, Humbug!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Christmas Countdown : 10

Things were fairly quiet at work today. Kind of like the eye of the hurricane quiet. For the last few days, the customers have been miserable and doing their best to make everyone else miserable too. Rude, arrogant, nasty and/or bewildering. Today a woman got upset with me while I was packing her bag - I had set the container of livers next to her yogurt - "They're touching".

At one point, someone touched my arm - sort of tapped three fingers in succession. There was no one standing beside or behind me. I have a friend who does that, the three fingers thing. I wonder if I should worry?
Yesterday I almost went over the edge - a nasty, rude, cranky, obnoxious, condescending, controlling old bastard was snapping at his wife- "Go over there", "Why aren't you packing yet?". "Are you dumb?" "Are you stupid", etc. He treats his wife like that all the time, often using much more colorful language. Yesterday, he was being especially mean - even for him. She stood there, limp, her spirit long ago wrung out, and took  it. I expect to read one day that she finally had enough and ran his heart through with a carving knife. I handed this s.o.b. his receipt and two coupons. "What the hell's this? I don't want this shit. You give them to me again and I'll throw them at you". I looked at him, wondering if I should hit him with my cane. Instead, I said, "If you do, I will throw them back at you." The next person in line - a middle aged woman- hearing me, looked at me and said, "Well, somebody's not having a good day, are they?" I'm surprised that she didn't report me.

You know, there was a time when I really loved the holidays. (Sigh).