I was three years old when Spike Jones released this recording and it was one of just a few 78 rpm records that were played in my home during each Christmas season. Back then, holiday music that was geared towards children didn’t have Grandma getting trashed by a demonic reindeer; songs were very few but still special in other ways or, like this one, just plain silly. For me, hearing this music represented a time of peace in my home. Christmas seemed to put a protective cloak around a child who lived with hurt during the rest of the year. Christmas made me feel safe.
My gift requests were simple, as I remember. Always a doll, usually a Madame Alexander who was absolute perfection in the world of toys for girls. I wasn’t allowed to play with any of them, each one sat on a shelf in my room and looked down, waiting for my daily admiration.
One year, I was presented with Tiny Tears, a chubby rubber baby doll that cried. She came with a bottle for feedings and when her stomach was pressed, tears rolled from her eyes. I so over hydrated that doll with water that her little rubber butt soon rotted and my mother threw her in the trash. I went searching through our garbage on a rescue mission but failed. Sadly, I watched from a window as the sanitation truck hauled away the one doll I truly killed with too much love.
Now, many years later, what is it that I really want for Christmas? Not much in the way of material things, that’s for sure. I have my two front teeth (and several others) thanks to the creative, and expensive, work from our family Dentist. He thanks me every day when he fires up his Land Rover.
Certainly, I wish for a better economy in the year ahead, more cures for the diseases that so many suffer with and for the safe return home of our military who sacrifice so much in protecting our freedoms.
If I were to write a letter to Santa at this very moment, I’d ask him to find and bring me my 66′ GTO. In that letter, I’d write down the VIN to make his search easier. And, I’d ask for my Tiny Tears doll too. Rotted rubber butt and all.
Hey, you never know!
From Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop…Take a line from a song you love and turn it into the title of your next blog post. Let the content follow.
Okay…this wasn’t about a song I particularly love, just some silly music from my childhood days. And, right now, with all that is going on in our world, we NEED a little silly…right this very minute!
