Take Me Back

Oh My Gosh, I must be getting old.  You know you’re getting old when you’re out of touch with “whasappenin”.  For instance, we watched part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on television yesterday.  It wasn’t a parade at all.  It was just a big production with lots of “big names”.  The only parading was the marching up to the performance area.  And most of the music had nothing to do with Marching, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.  A parade is made up of floats and bands playing music as they move along down the street.  This was just Hollywood moved east and it wasn’t even very good Hollywood at that.

Then there was Black Friday proliferating itself onto Thanksgiving Day.  Wouldn’t you think that 363 days a year is enough for shopping without dragging people away from their families and friends to work on Thanksgiving Day and/or Christmas Day?  But, like dumb sheep gone astray, we go along with “them” and support all this non-sense by running out with a drumstick in one hand and our credit card in the other chasing after that elusive sale.

Speaking of all this mayhem, what’s with dragging out the Christmas “stuff” at the end of August?  Who puts up a Christmas tree on the day after Labor Day?  Traditionally, we put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving having let the turkey settle in our stomachs for a few hours first.  Even six weeks of having a Christmas tree in the house is more than enough, I can’t imagine four months of it. 

The whole darned thing has gotten way to commercial for me and I see shades of my father growing in my mind.  “What’s with this generation, anyway?”   Take me back “country roads” to a time with more sanity.  To a time when a Thanksgiving parade consisted of Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts and High School Bands and a Fire truck with a Jolly Ol’ Fat man throwing out candy canes.  A time when there was a clear distinction between Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas.  A time when hot chocolate, skating parties, family gatherings took precedents over wandering the halls of the malls.  A time of “over the river and through the woods” to feast with family.

Oh well, I suppose that’s all nostalgia now.  So I guess it’s Happy HallowThanksMas, everyone.  However, try to slow down and enjoy the holidays.  So, put down that credit card and enjoy that traditional turkey sandwich – if that’s at all possible.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (I Thessalonians 5:28)