TheBanyanTree: Christmas time is here . . .

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I can’t get that song from Charlie Brown out of my head.  I keep re-running
the opening scene from Charlie Brown’s Christmas with the Peanuts characters
ice skating and in the background the children’s choir singing, “Christmas
time is here . . . happiness and cheer.”  The voices aren’t accompanied by
instruments, they’re just on their own, and I think that’s the appeal of the
song to me.  Simple and so clear, like an ice crystal.

My company generously gave us the day after Christmas off, so that made
Christmas Day seem like a bonus.  We didn’t have any extended family things
to do and we didn’t have to use Christmas Day to get ready for work, so it
stood alone, a day to be spent as we wanted to.

And because this wonderful little song has been floating in my head, I
suggested we go ice skating.  My family has never been one to get off their
duffs and do anything remotely athletic, but the idea of just spending
another day just sitting around eating had no appeal.

There were very few indoor ice arenas when I was a girl.  We skated outside
just like Charlie Brown.  There was a small playground across the street
from my house.  Bulldozers had pushed up some dirt into a circle like a pie
crust and in the winter they filled the interior of the circle with water
and let it freeze into an ice rink.  There was no warming house.  Either I
carried my skates over there and sat on the ground to put them on or I
walked over with skate guards on my blades.

Then I would skate for hours.  The minute I got home from school I would go
over to the rink and skate.  That’s how I spent my days on Christmas
vacation, skating.

I wasn’t Peggy Fleming.  I couldn’t twirl or jump and I could barely skate
backwards, but there was something comforting to me about the blades
stroking the ice and gliding me along.

There is an old train depot they renovated in downtown Minneapolis.  They
enclosed a train shed with glass and it became a skating rink.  It’s like
skating outside, but without the cold.  As you skate, you can see the
buildings and sky and people walking by.

We’ve been skating there before and it’s a popular decision.  Let’s go.  So
Ray and I spent Christmas morning like slugs.  We took our time getting up.
We took our time eating breakfast.  We looked over our Christmas presents
(Ray got a palm pilot and I got an MP3 player).  Then we met the kids at the
Milwaukee Depot.

I did my usual once around the rink hanging onto the sides for dear life
while I tried to find my center of gravity.  Then it comes back to me.
Skating.  One front gliding ahead of the other.  Arms swinging.  Swerving
around slower people.  Around and around as the loudspeakers play Christmas
music.

The grandsons have metal things to push around as they learn how to skate.
The older one (who is very coordinated) gets it immediately and sails around
the rink at top speed.  The little one has a more difficult time at first,
and has to be pushed, but by the time we were getting ready to leave, he was
pushing his little chair on his own.

They never played the Charlie Brown song, but I heard it.  Christmas time is
here . . . happiness and cheer.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at earthlink.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
Be a star!

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the
idle seashore of the mind.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow