Senior
Slant...
Christmas Reveries
by
Hilda Maston
As one grows older, many memories are
revisited. We have been through losses, moves,
infirmities, disappointments, and survived them all.
Around Christmas time we tend to live more in the past,
remembering when the kids were little, and wanted toys
instead of tuition, and were happy with a visit from
Santa and a holiday dinner. We remember how we shopped
for days, cooked for hours, and wrestled with yards of
wrapping paper and ribbon.
Nowadays, I just enjoy the holiday. I
give my daughter a check and she handles the Christmas
shopping. The only thing I have to do about Christmas
dinner is to show up. I do contribute deviled eggs and
black olives, for the sake of tradition. My
Granddaughter puts up the tree and decorates it.
Sometimes I keep her company while she does it, but
that’s all. These days I don’t bake bushels of cookies
because everyone in the family is on a diet. Same goes
for candy. I don’t give Holiday parties because all my
friends are usually in bed by ten o’clock.
So, why do I look forward to Christmas?
Because of wonderful memories of church services, music,
and the old days when the children were little and we
were a whole family. These memories are wonderful and it
is wonderful to be old and have the time to enjoy them.
I guess I am beginning to appreciate being older. That
is some kind of progress.
One of Life’s Mysteries
Did you ever find a strange ballpoint pen
in your purse or pocket? By strange, I mean one
that you’ve never seen before, and that you have no idea
where it came from. Do these pens have some
strange power that we don’t know about? Where do they
come from? For that matter, where do they go?
One day I find a pen with a bank logo on the side.
The next time, the pen is from a motel. How do
they get in and out of my purse? Is it because
they are throw-away items that they can wander in and
out of our lives?
Remember days long ago when the fountain
pen and pencil set was the graduation, Bar Mitzvah, or
retirement gift of choice? A pen that was
cherished and guarded. What happened? I have
a Cross pen that I cherish, but I never carry it in my
purse because I’m afraid that it might jump out and show
up in someone else’s.
Do you spend a lot of time reading the
messages on these throw-aways? Are they really a
good advertising tool? Maybe if there weren’t so
many of them they would settle down and stay with you
once you got hold of them. The November elections
certainly spawn a number of these pens. Would you vote
for someone who put his or her message on such a
throw-away item? There are many things that I
don’t understand, but I feel if I could solve the
mystery of the roaming ballpoint maybe more of life’s
mysteries could be solved
