santa’s helper…

I haven’t been putting my thoughts down lately like I should; there’s a lot of reasons and excuses, but I just haven’t felt inspired to the point that I thought what I was writing was worth reading… but go figure, this morning one of those ‘touching stories’ crossed my desk. So these aren’t my thoughts, but they are definitely worth reading. It’s a Christmas story – This one is not as spiritual as some, but nonetheless inspiring – it’s about a woman who knew how to teach. I wish I could have read these BEFORE I had children and filed them away away to call upon as I needed them. Some people just have an insight that is rare and precious.

Here it is:

Santa Claus and Grandma Memories

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: “There is no Santa Claus,” she jeered. “Even dummies know that!”

My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her “world-famous” cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so.  It had to be true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me. “No Santa Claus?” she snorted…. “Ridiculous!  Don’t believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad!!  Now, put on your coat, and let’s go.”

“Go? Go where, Grandma?” I asked. I hadn’t even finished my second world-famous cinnamon bun. “Where” turned out to be Kerby’s General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars.  That was a bundle in those days. “Take this money,” she said, “and buy something for someone who needs it. I’ll wait for you in the car.” Then she turned and walked out of Kerby’s.

I was only eight years old. I’d often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping.

For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.

I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church.

I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker.  He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock’s grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn’t have a coat. I knew that because he never went out to recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn’t have a cough; he didn’t have a good coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement.  I would buy Bobby Decker a coat! I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that.

“Is this a Christmas present for someone?” the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. “Yes, ma’am,” I replied shyly. “It’s for Bobby.”

The nice lady smiled at me, as I told her about how Bobby really needed a good winter coat.  I didn’t get any change, but she put the coat in a bag, smiled again, and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat (a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) in Christmas paper and ribbons and wrote, “To Bobby, From Santa Claus” on it. Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy.  Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker’s house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially, one of Santa’s helpers.

Grandma parked down the street from Bobby’s house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me a nudge. “All right, Santa Claus,” she whispered, “get going.”

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his door and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma.

Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open.  Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.

Fifty years haven’t dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker’s bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were — ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.

I still have the Bible, with the coat tag tucked inside: $19.95.

May you always have LOVE to share, HEALTH to spare and FRIENDS that care… And may you always believe in the magic of Santa Claus!

a few things that have changed because of the internet??!? …

I’ve been seeing a lot lately about how life has changed because of the internet. It’s hard to imagine life without wireless internet, but think about it. Only a few years ago, all we had was dial up and a modem that made those weird beeps and hissing noises (and you couldn’t use the phone when you were surfing the net.)  Before that we had a desktop computer with no internet connections but we could play the heck out of solitaire and minesweep. BUT even before that, do you remember life before computers? What in our lives is different because of the “internets,” what has been forever damaged because of it, and what is better? Here is my take on it…

PRIVACY – First and foremost, the internet has completely ruined privacy. I’m really secretly thankful that I was a full-fledged adult when Facebook and Twitter came along. When I think back to all the shenanigans we went through in high school and after, I cringe to think how I would have described my activities on Twitter. And we’ve all heard stories of people not landing a job because of something that was on their Facebook page. These days there is no mystery about where you’re going, whom you’re with, or what you’re doing – and even if you do have so much “fun” that you can’t remember, don’t worry – there is always someone there with a camera and before the weekend is out, there are pictures on Facebook. And now we have Loopt, foursquare, and other apps that work with those incredible smartphones that let everyone know exactly where you are, 24-7. And with the advent of the new iPhone 4, there will be no more of the “sorry honey, I’m staying late at the office” because now we have video phones, so your “honey” can see exactly where you are… Even for responsible adults, the lines between invasion of privacy, stalking, and socializing are often blurred.

LISTS – Yes, lists. Do you remember how much fun David Letterman’s top ten lists were? Well, I guess they’re still fun, but if we happen to miss them, we can go to Google or Bing and come up with not just David Letterman’s list, but EVERYONE’S version of a top ten list. And it’s almost impossible to make a list of something that doesn’t already have a list made about it.  Anything you want, it’s out there without even having to spend a lot of time searching.

NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES – Do you remember the Watergate scandal? Woodward and Bernstein were amazing investigative reporters with a secret informant called “Deep Throat.” I wonder how that whole deal would have come down today? And what about Clark Kent and Lois Lane? When I picture them in black and white, I hear the clicking sound of the “news wire” machine and the typewriters. That was the time when it really took something special to be an investigative reporter. Magazines and newspapers seemed like glamorous, exciting places to work. Wow, has that changed. The printed versions of newspapers and magazines are on their last legs. When we want to know something, depending on what it is, we immediately go to CNN.com or TMZ.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY – Yes, photography, or maybe the art behind photography. When I was younger, only the very elite had 35mm cameras. I saved for what seemed like years to buy my first one. I would take pictures using film, reel that film back into the ‘canister’, send it off, anxiously wait for about a week, get the pictures back, only to find out the settings were all wrong and everything was either over or under exposed. So you try again. After many months of trial and error, I finally almost figured out how to use my totally manual, non-auto focus 35mm camera. Now if you don’t own a digital camera that fits in your pocket, it doesn’t matter because your phone takes pictures too. Then you quickly download them to your computer and if they aren’t quite right, you open up Photoshop and adjust them this way or that, add a few filter effects and you create a masterpiece.

MUSIC – Even when an artist makes it big, they have to tour to survive – they can’t just sell music anymore; there are just too many ways for consumers to “steal” music. Even though Napster was buried, music is still fairly easy to share without paying for it. I honestly try not to get music for “free.” If an artist offers a free download, sure I’ll take it. But (especially with young artists) I buy a CD instead of borrowing someones to copy. I WANT to support their talent. As for the music stores where I spent many many hours of my youth flipping through racks and racks of albums—well those stores are mostly gone… There are a few music retailers left, but they also sell movies, iPod attachments, and other paraphernalia to survive. It does seem like vinyl is making a comeback but for the life of me I can’t figure out why. I can’t even count the number of albums I ruined by leaving them for 10 minutes in a hot car. AND, we would buy an album and play the ENTIRE album  over and over until the grooves were worn and the sound was no longer crisp. We knew every word to EVERY song. Today, iTunes gives us the option to pick and choose which songs we want off of an album, and sometimes we choose to buy only the “hits.” When we do that, we end up missing out on a lot of great music.

CELEBRITY STATUS – There was a time when you had to be a REAL celebrity with real talent to make it in the entertainment industry. Now ANYONE with a camera can post a video on the internet, get 2 million views, and become an instant celebrity – maybe not for good reasons, or the right reasons, but a celebrity nonetheless.

OLD FLAMES AND OLD MEMORIES – Remember how cute your grade school crush was? And there was the gorgeous quarterback on the football team or the cute cheerleader. When we sometimes wander down memory lane, those people in our past are just as cute as they were 20 or 30 years ago – and probably equally successful. So now, all we have to do is google them or look them up on Facebook and guess what?? They’re just as old as we are, and the cute boy with the long hair who lived down the street is now completely bald and on his third marriage… Definitely a reality check.

SPELLING AND GRAMMAR – Between texting and quick typing, spelling and proper grammar is definitely the loser. I try to hold on to what I learned in school, but I find myself abbreviating things to make the 140 character limit and typing “YAY” instead of “YEA”…. look it up people, while “yay” may LOOK phonetically correct, it is not a word.

NIGERIA’S REPUTATION – This country in Africa was once known as an exporter of oil. Now it seems like all Nigeria exports is fraudulent emails using incredibly bad English, asking people to help secure millions of dollars, just hand over all of your personal information…

TRUST – Yes, I know the internet hasn’t completely ruined trust, but think about it… If you don’t like the way things are in “real life”, you can immerse yourself in Farmville, Zooville, YoVille, or any of those other virtual games and build and decorate to your heart’s content. And take this a step further, you can create a whole new you in something like “Second Life.”  So what if you’re middle-aged and slightly pudgy, in Second Life you can be 24 and smoking hot forever. You can pretend to be whoever you want to be, your only limit is your imagination… just remember, that wonderful person you met in the chat room isn’t necessarily who they say they are either…

Yeah, wouldn’t that be nice, 24 forever 🙂