Friday, November 19, 2010
At least pie is taken seriously here.
My city can do some crazy things. But Pumpkin Pie should always be taken THIS seriously!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Songs of Christmas past and the end of cassette tapes.
I started searching for Christmas Cd's this afternoon. I don't want current musicians covers, I wanted the originals, or at least the versions I grew up with. Tony Bennett, Elvis, Dean Martin, Gene Autry and so on. Not Miley Cyrus or whomever the flavor of the year anticipated Christmas album. I'm searching for what I remember hearing after at my grandparents house.
In the mid-late 80's, my Grandfather would go to the library once or twice a week, pick up a stack of music tapes, stop off at Kmart or wherever the Sunday ad told him they were cheap, get a 10 pack of Memorex blank tapes (sometimes even with cases), and head home to record all that he could. Hours later, in the worst handwriting you ever saw, you had a new collection of music. Mostly Hank Williams Jr. and the like. But just before Thanksgiving one year, I came home to the smell of cookies, the house hotter than hell since it was still warm enough outside to need a coat, cold enough for old people to leave the heat on full blast, the oven on, and usually left open and to my surprise Christmas music blaring. Now what made this special was that he was making the tapes for me. What made the tapes special, is what made my grandparents special to me.
Gramma was deafer than bat when she had her aids off, which she would do and not tell you. Grandpa was also hard of hearing, only because he figured out when she turned her aids off (sometime after afternoon beer 3), that he could listen to music or the TV as loud as he wanted. Meanwhile, she hummed- but never a song or a tune that was recognizable, by anyone, ever. It's could also be described as moaning, like I just broke my leg four hours ago, I have no strength left and no one is coming to find me moaning. And she too, was loud. To make matters worse, he would yell and talk to her, she would do the same, neither one hearing one another, yet all the while things got done, no one died, and at the end of the day she'd turn her aids back on long enough to tell me tall tales and hear what I had to say. I'm pretty sure he half-listened.
Now, if you remember, old dual tape players recorded everything, the other tape that was playing, live radio and of course, people talking. Every tape that that man ever made, told it's own story. The two I remember the most were the classic Christmas songs that I'm looking for, and Dogs barking Jingle Bells- on a loop. Both A and B sides. He kept recording those dogs for 90 minutes on each side. You could hear their conversation before I walked through the door, "When does she get home?" "Hmmmm, (pause) MMMM," and he would yell louder "When does she get home?" the sound of the her hearing aid screeching as she clicks it on "What, hun?"and this my friends, went on for at least 7 rounds of Jingle Bells. This also was done while he sat right next to the stereo, music volume on 7 (for best quality) then they were talking/yelling at 12 while the volume knob stopped at 10. You could even hear when he rewound the other tape and whatever was going on (including old people flatulence) in between him starting the song over. And somewhere on side B, you could even hear 7 year old me coming home from school, the doors opening and closing behind me, my coat coming off, and a backpack thrown to the ground. The 'second soundtrack' was annoying, and I was made fun of when my friends heard my tapes (since they usually 'owned' original tapes, with cover art and cases!) but they were my one of a kind Christmas tapes.
I remember seeing the tapes among my things, but that was 7 to 10 years ago, many moves, many purges of things. And right now, as I'm planning Christmas events, activities, how the house should look, the perfect gifts for my daughters, and that we should have Christmas music playing this year, I can't help but long for one of those tapes, to hear their voices talking about nothing and everything. And that's when I remember, I get one shot every year, to give my kids, these same type of memories. The type of memories that every Christmas, Halloween, Easter, and all other holidays will set the standard for. That's a lot of pressure. So, I'm gonna order the CD, bake some cookies, and capture it on my Flip video and back it up...on like 50 different servers and hard drives and pray that the technology stays relevant. Cause right now, I wish I had just one copy of one of those tapes. At least, in my head, and my head alone, I can hear them in between the barks.
In the mid-late 80's, my Grandfather would go to the library once or twice a week, pick up a stack of music tapes, stop off at Kmart or wherever the Sunday ad told him they were cheap, get a 10 pack of Memorex blank tapes (sometimes even with cases), and head home to record all that he could. Hours later, in the worst handwriting you ever saw, you had a new collection of music. Mostly Hank Williams Jr. and the like. But just before Thanksgiving one year, I came home to the smell of cookies, the house hotter than hell since it was still warm enough outside to need a coat, cold enough for old people to leave the heat on full blast, the oven on, and usually left open and to my surprise Christmas music blaring. Now what made this special was that he was making the tapes for me. What made the tapes special, is what made my grandparents special to me.
Gramma was deafer than bat when she had her aids off, which she would do and not tell you. Grandpa was also hard of hearing, only because he figured out when she turned her aids off (sometime after afternoon beer 3), that he could listen to music or the TV as loud as he wanted. Meanwhile, she hummed- but never a song or a tune that was recognizable, by anyone, ever. It's could also be described as moaning, like I just broke my leg four hours ago, I have no strength left and no one is coming to find me moaning. And she too, was loud. To make matters worse, he would yell and talk to her, she would do the same, neither one hearing one another, yet all the while things got done, no one died, and at the end of the day she'd turn her aids back on long enough to tell me tall tales and hear what I had to say. I'm pretty sure he half-listened.
Now, if you remember, old dual tape players recorded everything, the other tape that was playing, live radio and of course, people talking. Every tape that that man ever made, told it's own story. The two I remember the most were the classic Christmas songs that I'm looking for, and Dogs barking Jingle Bells- on a loop. Both A and B sides. He kept recording those dogs for 90 minutes on each side. You could hear their conversation before I walked through the door, "When does she get home?" "Hmmmm, (pause) MMMM," and he would yell louder "When does she get home?" the sound of the her hearing aid screeching as she clicks it on "What, hun?"and this my friends, went on for at least 7 rounds of Jingle Bells. This also was done while he sat right next to the stereo, music volume on 7 (for best quality) then they were talking/yelling at 12 while the volume knob stopped at 10. You could even hear when he rewound the other tape and whatever was going on (including old people flatulence) in between him starting the song over. And somewhere on side B, you could even hear 7 year old me coming home from school, the doors opening and closing behind me, my coat coming off, and a backpack thrown to the ground. The 'second soundtrack' was annoying, and I was made fun of when my friends heard my tapes (since they usually 'owned' original tapes, with cover art and cases!) but they were my one of a kind Christmas tapes.
I remember seeing the tapes among my things, but that was 7 to 10 years ago, many moves, many purges of things. And right now, as I'm planning Christmas events, activities, how the house should look, the perfect gifts for my daughters, and that we should have Christmas music playing this year, I can't help but long for one of those tapes, to hear their voices talking about nothing and everything. And that's when I remember, I get one shot every year, to give my kids, these same type of memories. The type of memories that every Christmas, Halloween, Easter, and all other holidays will set the standard for. That's a lot of pressure. So, I'm gonna order the CD, bake some cookies, and capture it on my Flip video and back it up...on like 50 different servers and hard drives and pray that the technology stays relevant. Cause right now, I wish I had just one copy of one of those tapes. At least, in my head, and my head alone, I can hear them in between the barks.
Halloween 2010
One skinned knee, 20 trick or treaters, 8 logs burned, one burnt cider tongue, a sleeping Squish, a major Mommy breakdown and everything taken down, put away by 3pm the next day. I say good. I guess I'm looking forward to Christmas a little more. See my next post. But I did find the world's cutest Dragon in my front yard.
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