Roxanne Tellier – Ho Ho Holiday Memories

“Rockin’ around the Christmas tree, at the Christmas party hop.”  “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!” Oh NOes! Must be getting close to the holidays – the earworms are out in full force!

This will be the last DBAWIS column for 2019. Next time you see us, it will be a bright and shiny new 2020! Let’s hope that 2020 applies to our vision, rather than to our hindsight.

I’ve got a holiday gathering to go to this afternoon, and every year, it takes me a little longer to get ready to be serially hugged. But one of the perks of having written a weekly column for many years is that, now and again, we can reach back into those past ponderings and re-release them into the present, dusted off, re-edited, and ready to be digested anew.

For your Christmas reading, wonderment and wandering …. a few morsels from my past holiday tables …

Segarini – Tinsel and Time Travel

 

I do not do well during the Holidays.

I look back at the year just passed and wonder if I did well …moved forward …accomplished some of my goals, and years ago, before the practice of ageism robbed me of being able to use my skill set to create and work and earn a paycheque, I could endure the passing of yet another year, but these days, it is difficult to channel all the energy, creative juices, and desire still active inside of me, to continue to hope that the songs will finally get recorded, the book will finally get edited, the radio ideas tried, the TV show and movie brought to fruition …having taken everything as far as I can on my own, I just can’t seem to find that person or persons to open the doors I need opened.

Peter’s Christmas Past

 

This is my last column before the “Don’t Believe A Word I Say” Christmas hiatus. Pull up a chair and I will regale you with some of my Christmas memories. Not in strict chronological order, but I hope to shed some light on Christmas on Franklin Street in the 60’s and 70’s.

Roxanne Tellier – Tradition? Tradition!

Can we really be nearing the end of 2019? It seems like only yesterday that I was making excuses for not wanting to go out on New Year’s Eve! (I got a million of ’em… )

November and December have always been crazy busy months in my life; Halloween kicks off a slick slide thru November’s family birthdays, all the way to my own birthday on December 4, and then the multiple get togethers and dinners that lace the three weeks until Christmas itself.

Pat Blythe – ‘Tis the season…..a little music history….with music

All my neatly laid out plans for today’s column……changed on the note of a Christmas song. Although Fall may be my favourite time of year, Christmas is by far my favourite holiday. It is an incredibly happy, sad, bittersweet and joyous time of year that brings out every possible emotion in me. I run through them from top to bottom repeatedly.

The Vickers of Darrell Take a Jaunty Journey

Let’s face it; we live in hyper-reactive times. The teensiest trespass against us sets off radical, volcanic transmogrifications that make The Incredible Hulk look like a big green pussy. Spit-flecked invective and throbbing temple veins are instantly marshaled to man the pike-staffed ramparts of our fury, should our McNuggets fail to be brought forth in a timely manner. Mistrust and intolerance swirl around us like Carol Doda’s nipple tassels in a seedy Frisco supper club. Compromise and empathy have become about as appetizing as Planter’s Wart or Rob Schneider.

Lois and Reg and Peter and Coco

As you know, I am still dealing with Lois’ passing. Last week, I had to have my little buddy Reg put down. Depression has been prevalent in my life over the last while, often pinning me into bed until 1:00 P.M.

I dream about Lois and I think of things that I should have said to her, ways that I could have made her feel even more loved than she was… I finally got Lois’ apartment cleaned out and I have a lot of her things at my apartment, so it sort of looks like a submarine before setting out on patrol, with every surface covered with boxes.