We have holidays all during the year and new ones have been created since I was born. I am of the opinion that we may end up with more holidays than regular days. I guess that I will just let future generations worry about that. Also, it seems to me that holidays are getting mixed up. For example, the Fourth of July was the big fireworks day. Now, fireworks are becoming part of many special days. I fully expect that someone will set them off on Groundhog’s Day. Of course, that might backfire as the groundhog would be afraid to come out. Lord knows how long a winter we might have then. However, I have seen fireworks tents before Christmas. I hope that they are just getting set up for New Year’s. We need peace and good will now! If there are folks who want to shoot off a couple of fingers, New Year’s Eve is better, if it must be done.
That is not to say that there might not be some shared events between holidays that might have some value. In fact, at the December meeting of Husbands United (a secret society) we had a discussion on that very subject. It has a meeting where there was very little action needed to help a poor husband who had veered off the beaten path. (The Christmas season does have its own spell). One member suggested that the Fourth and Thanksgiving should share a tradition. In this case it was pumpkin pie. It passed by unanimous vote including mine. I share the feeling that pumpkin pies need to be more available especially since The Blond in the House makes the world’s best. Eating a nice slice of homemade pumpkin pie covered in freshly made whipped cream is a perfect dessert for watching fireworks.
There were some bad ideas too. One gentleman, who may have had too much eggnog, wanted to combine Groundhog Day with Easter. He said it would be better to pull a bunny out of a hole rather than an ugly looking groundhog. He said the ladies would like the cuteness of a bunny. There was some sentiment for that idea. However, I pointed out that bunnies don’t hibernate.
So, you would have a hard time finding holes with a bunny in them – although there might be one with baby bunnies in it, and you would scare the heck out of them if you dragged them out before a huge crowd and TV reporters. That would foul up Groundhog Day and we never would find out how many days of winter there would be. I won’t even discuss one proposal that would take traditions from President’s Day and the first day of football season. The proposer knew that the first day of football season is not a national holiday. However, he felt it would be in the very near future. There was no second to that one.
To end the meeting, I proposed one that drew unanimous approval. It was agreed by every man-jack there that a big downer was wrapping presents. I suggested that we follow the Easter tradition. To make certain that it works, we would just start with the spouses to see how it was accepted. That is the husbands would not wrap the presents, but hide them through the house. Then, the spouses could have the excitement of trying to find them! Everybody went home feeling good, only to hear “It’s not going to happen!”
Barry Evans is a columnist for Villages-News.com
