Reminiscing

Last night (Christmas Eve), Mary and I went to Longhorn Steakhouse for our “Christmas Feast” and we fell to reminiscing about past Christmases.

When we first met and married, Mary’s folks lived in Jackson, TN and we used to go home all the time. All of her family was still home then, except for her older brother, Ronnie, who was off at college (Jackson, MS). And he would come home for Christmas. After we had been married a few years, her parents began moving again. They lived in Arkadelphia, AR, Jackson, MS, Natchitoches, LA, and Hamilton, AL. Meanwhile, Ronnie, Mark and Debbie also married and we all began having children. But every year at Christmas, we all trekked to where they were living for our family get-together. And none of these places was close to where we lived!

Hamilton was where they retired to and built their dream house. It wasn’t quite the “bunk house” her Dad had talked about building for his growing family, it was much nicer, but it was a place intended to be large enough to accommodate most of us and our kids. And let me tell you, Hamilton was in the middle of nowhere! A very small town in a sparsely populated corner of Alabama. And a very hard drive! Yet, that was where we all gathered for Christmas. There were so many of us by then that we had to rent a couple of hotel rooms.

One year, when they were living in Arkadelphia, we were living in Pensacola, FL. We woke up Christmas morning. It was extremely cold and there was a dusting of snow on the ground – in Pensacola! Yet we loaded the car and headed off into a blizzard because it was time for the family Christmas gathering. We left early in the morning and didn’t arrive until late that night. The roads were covered with ice and the town was practically locked in. Yet the entire family made it.

One year, I want to say it was when they were in Jackson, MS, it was so cold that their pipes froze (the Pearl River froze as well). They had no water and yet the family was a-comin’! I remember jumping in the truck with her Dad and going up to “the place” (he was Food Service Director for Belhaven College and that is how he referred to the cafeteria) to get and bring back water to the house!

Eventually, we began to gather at each other’s houses, but the Christmas gathering tradition continued. Slowly this tradition died out. We thoroughly enjoyed the gathering, the food, the fun, the chaos. For some reason that was not something we were able to pass on to our own children.

We also talked about one of our activities at our gathering. In the beginning, it was just  Mark, her younger brother, and me. He and I would go out to the back yard and play “punt return.” We would line up at each end of the yard, opposite each other, and one of us would punt the ball to the other one. The receiver would try to return it for a touchdown, while the punter tried to tackle him. Or we would play basketball at the goal in the backyard. I remember one afternoon running full tilt in an attempt to catch a pass from Mark when I was suddenly laid out in the yard. I had run into that pole!!

When Ronnie came home we would play “goal line stand.” One on offense and two on defense. Four plays to make it into the end zone. Tackle. In those days, Mark was all elbows and knees too. When Dave joined the family we would play two-on-two tackle football. Slowly, as time crept up on us, we began to grudgingly play touch football. But that was only because it was taking too long for us to get up from each play. Ha!

The year of the blizzard in central Arkansas is also the year of the famous “Ice Bowl.” I’m telling you, there was so much snow and ice that the town was shut down. One night we were out at midnight sliding down the frozen streets! Well, we wanted to play some football, so we layered up, put on our big coats and our gloves and Ronnie, Mark, Dave and I headed off for the field. Yes, we had to walk a ways to get to the field. Mary and I laughed as we recalled her Mother’s parting words as we were going out the door, “If you get hurt, don’t come back here crying!!” We all laughed thinking, We won’t – get hurt or come back crying. And we didn’t. And we had a blast!

What wonderful memories. We gathered for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and we even took vacations together. I will admit, some of the gatherings turned into small disasters, but overall they were good times. A good tradition. I’m sad that it came to an end and sadder that we were not able to continue it in our family. But I am grateful for the times that we do get together and enjoy each other and our own growing families.

Ah, another post with no point. Just assorted and random Christmas memories on this Christmas morn.