Friday, December 13, 2019

A Christmas Mishaps Weekly Link Round-Up




I would imagine all of you have had a holiday disaster or two or perhaps just a close call. I know I have. There was the year the Hong Kong flu swept the nation. Mom and I were recuperating from it and as weak as kittens, but we were determined to get the Christmas tree up and decorated. Somehow, one of us lost our balance and bumped into the tree. It came crashing down, and shattered ornaments covered the floor-- some of them (like "Baby's First Christmas") irreplaceable to Mom. We sat on the floor and cried for a while.

But the one holiday episode that sticks in my mind most is the year I desperately wanted a guitar. Mom was raising me on a widow's pension and a variety of part-time jobs, but somehow she managed to save up the money for that guitar. She squirreled it away in one of her closets.

The only thing I liked about the little house we rented (for $50 per month!) was one wall of Mom's bedroom. It had two closets and, in the middle, a whole bank of built-in cupboards and drawers. I guess even then I liked organization and plenty of storage.

One day a week before Christmas, Mom asked me to go into her bedroom and get something from one of the closets. I had my hand on the closet doorknob when I heard her make a funny noise. When I brought the item out to the living room for her, I noticed that she was looking at me very closely. Very. Closely. But, being a teenager, I just blew it off and went on my merry way.

On Christmas Day, Mom told me that she realized that the item she'd asked me to bring her was stored in the same closet in which she'd hidden the guitar. "But I knew by looking at your face when you came back out that you hadn't seen it."

Oh well. You can't always be the brightest bulb in the chandelier. I still wonder how on earth I could get in that closet and miss a guitar. Guitars aren't exactly small, you know? Mom trusted me not to snoop, so she hadn't made any attempts to hide it behind anything... and I missed it! How embarrassing...

At least I didn't miss any links this week. Let's check 'em out!



►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄


►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

►Fascinating Folk◄


►The Happy Wanderer◄


►I ♥ Lists & Quizzes◄



That's it for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend, and read something fabulous!



8 comments:

  1. On the social crime novels, Nina Revoyr's Southland is terrific. I read it years ago. Not only is it about racism, but it also discusses mistreatment of Japanese soldiers in the U.S. military during WW II. It was the first book I read by her and since then, I've read three others and will read the rest of her books.

    Heavey, My Home, by Attica Locke is a terrific read. It is the second book in her series about an African-American state trooper in Texas, Bluebird, Bluebird. It is such a well-written series and her sense of place is wonderful.

    At the top of that page is Your House Will Pay, a character-driven novel by Steph Cha that deals with social tensions in Los Angeles between Korean and African-American communities.

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  2. Oh, my, that was a close call with the guitar, Cathy! What a story! I can just imagine how your mother must have felt. Now, I'm off to Arran - what a great place to find new archaeological digs!

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    1. I thought you might be taking a trip to Arran... ;-)

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  3. How distressing to lose favorite ornaments, especially when still dealing with the effects of the flu! As always, I appreciate the links. :)

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    1. At least I still have the (few) non-breakable ornaments.

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