With Christmas 2020 behind us, I’m about to begin my third week of Chemotherapy and Radiation to insure that any and all cancer cells are killed. I've been writing blogs from my recliner for my TALES FROM THE ORANGE ROOM page. Here’s one from around 1966.
Christmas in the 1960s was a magical time. Perhaps because I was a boy. Or maybe it was because it was a simpler time with the best toys ever made. Spy toys were big then due to James Bond movies as well as Batman and Green Hornet. Myself and or my friends acquired quite an arsenal of ingenious guns, rifles and bombs.
I myself had received a walking cane with a lions head on the top. One tap of the long cane on the floor, and a plastic bullet would project out of the opened lions mouth. A normal radio with the press of a button, become a working gun. So many great presents that year. But the greatest present was the proof that Santa Claus WAS REAL!!!
By now I was in second grade and kids were beginning to get wise about the Santa Clause situation. I refused to believe that Santa really was our parents but I was beginning to have my first doubts ..... until Christmas Eve that year.
Sometime in the dark hours of three or four in the morning, early Christmas Day, I could hold my pee not a second more. I knew it was against North Pole policy.... kids were supposed to stay in bed, tucked tight with sugar plums dancing in their heads. But if I didn’t dance down the hall and relieve my jingle balls right away, there was going to be a problem.
I peeled the covers back and silently crept out of bed and down the black hallway, past my parents bedroom, past my sleeping brothers room and left into our bathroom. I finished my business and as I was just about to turn off the light, I thought I heard a noise in our living room further down the hall and to my left. I knew I should not peek over my shoulder. I could curse my Christmas. But ....I did.
From the glow of the bathroom light, I could see presents 🎁 up and around our unlit Christmas tree in the corner of our living room. Oh my gosh I thought!!!! I need to get to my room NOW!!!!! Maybe I’m catching Santa in the act!!!! Maybe I’ll startle him. Then.... it happened!!!!
Just then, my eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness to notice two EYES....with bathroom light reflecting in them. They were about five feet off the ground and looking RIGHT AT ME. Off went the light and like a whiz, I was back in my bed. I couldn’t sleep.
Of course it was a wonderful Christmas Day and I told my parents about seeing Santa. They listened and let me enjoy the rush of excitement. Perhaps it was just an Elf I said. Because the eyes were very small. But it would have had to have been a TALL elf. The mystery would continue for another year or so.
Spoiler alert:
Well, I later found out that Santa Clause was indeed a myth. But what had I seen that magical Christmas morning? Didn’t I see Old Saint Nick in the flesh? After some thought, I surmised that the eyes glowing in the living room next to our Christmas tree was in fact our Siamese cat, Chan. He must have jumped up on the table against the living room wall, next to the tree. His eyes caught the reflection of the light. Since he was looking at me from the table, he appeared to be about five feet tall.
As usual, the adult mind has no place for mystery. Everything must be analyzed and explained. But then again...there’s no proof. Perhaps it COULD HAVE been Santa. At least, that’s what I told my own children when they were young.
They loved that story of me seeing Santa Clause. So do I.
Just another Tale From The Orange Room.
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