Last night I managed to put the lights on the tree. I use those old light sets, the ones with bigger bulbs. The "new" sets, with the little tiny lights are just not for me - yet. The part of the old lights I would miss most are the twinkle bulbs. Sad to say, they are getting few and far between now. I haven't been able to find replacements for several years. The miniature lights (when they first came out we used to call them "Japanese lights") don't blink individually - whole strands flick on and off.
I do get a bit particular about my trees. There has to be a balance of colors and then ... oh, it just goes on and on. I like big old trees, which go all the way up to the ceiling. It's what we used to have when I was a kid and we lived with Uncle Bob and Aunt Loraine in what had been my grandfather's house.
I've got to be about 7 in this pic. Evidently, I was modeling the jacket which I had just received as a gift.
After Dad built his own house, he went for smaller trees. He built a platform for the tree which we'd cover in brick patterned paper. Then he went a little crazy about it all. When we bought a tree, he would look for extra branches lying around. If the tree wasn't symmetrical, he'd drill a hole where a branch should be, and insert one of the extras. Sometimes he'd just move an existing branch an inch or two. It was my duty to decorate the tree and arrange the presents.
Jayne Mansfield decorates a tree
...and arranges the presents.
Except for one year when I was renting a room from a Jewish woman, I have always managed to have a Christmas tree. You know, several really good and nice things have happened to me this year. And, of course, a lot of crap. This year has been especially full of crap. Having these trees over the years has been a sign of victory over my circumstances. But even with the good stuff and my little phyric victory this year, I still an not feeling it. Christmas I mean. It's like I'm just going thru the motions now. Maybe finishing the tree will help.
Bela Lugosi on the right, Ed Wood on the left (unless he's in drag in the center?)
Jesus Christ. How did it get to be December 20th? I still haven't been able to recapture those few minutes of Christmas spirit. One of the problems has been my lack of vehicular transport. I haven't been able to get out and about and see how folks have been lighting up their homes. One of the reasons I love this time of year is for the sheer outrageous conspicuous vulgarity of things. For instance:
Both of the above have officially been nominated to be in the Griswold collection.
But then there are the displays which just go way over the top:
Okay, I've got a tree still waiting for its first decorations.
So here's the thing - I've been having trouble getting into the ho ho ho thing this year. For last night's radio show, I played uptempo houserockin' swing and blues Christmas Songs like Lionel Hampton's "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" (vocal by Sonny Parker)
So, you get the idea - the only song which had any religious overtones at all was a parody of Frank Sinatra singing "Away in a Manger" with a swing. Every thing else was decidedly secular in tone. And yet I still got a call asking when I was going to play something besides Christmas music. I replied that "Christmas" music was all I had brought with me - it seemed like the thing to do. The person on the phone then said, "Oh. That's too bad." Every freakin' year I get a similar call or calls.
I get quickly fed up with the "Holiday" music playing constantly everywhere I go. Especially the trash that has been promoted for the last 20 years or so. The music I play is the stuff you don't hear much anymore, and is likely to have a woman plaintively asking Santy Claus' help as her man "is in so much trouble even the white folks can't get him free." Here it is - 1927 with vocals by Victoria Spivey, Lonnie Johnson on guitar and Porter Grainger on piano:
Ms. Spivey, by the way, used to have a blues show which played frequently here in Brattleboro at the Red Barn (no longer a performance venue).
So, I had finally begun to find a bit of Christmas Spirit, and had it taken away. I got two phone calls from friends who told me how much they liked what I was playing. Still, their kind calls didn't put me back in the mood.
A few weeks ago I won $40.00 on a scratch ticket. I spent $10.00 and saved the rest for a Christmas tree. I eventually had to spend the $30.00 for food, but I took it out of the very next paycheck. Last Monday, a friend helped me get and transport a tree. I immediately got it up in its stand and have been watering it all week. I have yet to put the first light or ball on it.
Finally, I am about to start. And I will do everything I can to come up with some Christmas Spirit - just to spite the damned sonof a bitch who called.
