Monday, December 29, 2008

resolutions for 2009

I never make New Year resolutions. But what the heck, it is slow at work...

Travel - namely get to the West Coast in 2009. I was hoping to get to Seattle for a conference last year, but my effort was thwarted. I also want to visit friends in San Francisco and So Cal.

New job - yeah - I spent all of 2008 applying for jobs and I have four open applications right now - just hoping to hear from any and all of them.

Socialize - go out with friends more. I either have band rehearsals or meetings or I'm at home. I'd like to go out w/ friends more.

Self-improvement - be a better friend, brother, uncle and partner. Listen more. be more generous. be quiet. Pray.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

My grandmother - Anna Carroll

I was fortunate enough to know all four of my grandparents. And though I never met my great-grandparents I feel as though I know them through the family stories.

Anna Lawyer Carroll - my mother's mother was born in January 1891. Her father was stern yet loved her and doted on her. As she grew up she learned to play the piano and organ and eventually taught piano lessons. She could sight-read piano music very well and for many years she played piano for the silent movies for $.25 a night. If a vaudeville troupe came into town and needed an accompanist she'd get paid $.50 for the show. That was big money she said!

I learned to read music and play the piano from Nana. The book she used was John Thompson's Teaching Little Fingers to Play. My lessons were never scheduled. Since we lived in the same household with my grandparents I would get a lesson or practice catch-as-catch-can.

In addition to the music lessons - and hearing the piano lessons of so many kids over the years I also helped my grandmother with cleaning and baking.

At Christmastime she would always bake a couple of fruitcakes. Not the usual awful kind. She would start with an applesauce cake recipe and then add about half the candied fruits and nuts that the recipe called for. Oh yeah and she'd sprinkle whiskey on the cake and then wrap it in a linen towel and sprinkle that with whiskey. All the cakes and cookies would be stored in the pantry.

In addition to the cakes there would also be fruit cookies, tole-house cookies, scotch cookies and sometimes chocolate cookies. I had such fun helping out in the kitchen - blending the butter and brown sugar. David, if you eat all the brown sugar and butter we won't have any for the cookies! I was also in charge of putting the cookies in the oven and rotating them. I also had the task of tasting them!!

I treasure all those memories and the recipes too!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

thinking about Christmas

It is Christmas time and I'm getting nostalgic. I was driving somewhere the other day and I had the radio tuned to a station that is playing non-stop holiday tunes. Yes some are awful and some are cheesy. But it got me to thinking about a time in my life when all those songs were new to me.

I thought about grade school chorus and learning "I'll have a blue Christmas without you". Mrs. Smallwood told us that it is without you, not withou chew.

In fourth grade I sang a solo of "Christmas in Killarney". My teacher, Mrs. Allemong introduced with her slightly country accent - Even in far away Arland people are celebrating Christmas. I wore a bright red shirt and my mother fashioned a big green bow. There's a line in the song How grand it feels to click your heels and join in the fun of the jigs and reels. I was supposed to click my heels when I sang that line. I was so nervous I forgot to move. Oh the poor parents and teachers who had to endure those programs every year!

It wasn't so bad - as a result of my star turn there I was invited to dress as a leprechaun the following March and welcome the pre-school kids who were coming to visit the school for the first time.

There's so much about this time of year that I love. Seeing the holiday decorations go up in my hometown. Making decorations at school. Writing letters to Santa and listening to Santa read the letters on the local radio station. Santa was always preceded by the "Christmas Basket of Music". Santa would then show up and talk about what the elves were doing and the polar bears and the reindeer. He'd talk about Mrs. Claus baking cookies.

Years later I learned that Santa was in reality a friend of the family - my dad's mentor. Mr. Capen would never strike you as the kind of person who would play Santa Claus - but he was wonderful. At some point Mr. Capen was sick and he asked my dad to take over. My dad said the kids would know that he wasn't Santa, so Mr. Capen invented Alvin the Elf who was helping out Santa for a few days. When Mr. Capen died my dad took over the program. He loved it. But the sponsor didn't want Alvin the Elf - he wanted Santa, so my dad became Santa. I think that is why he took to wearing a Santa hat every day from Thanksgiving through New Year.

One aside - my father had an insurance business and he would do his own radio spots for the business. A friend mentioned one day that her son, after hearing the business ad asked his mother, Why is Santa doing ads for the insurance company?

Last Saturday I was painting at home and I had the place to myself and I put the radio on to the station that plays Christmas songs. I heard Bing Crosby sing White Christmas and a bit later I heard Nat King Cole sing The Christmas Song. I thought about so many things and felt happy and sad and hopeful and cheerful and oh so loved by friends and family here and gone.