Michael Bailey is a gentleman I grew up with. His insights brought great joy to my heart so I thought I would share them.
So as i sit here getting over all the Christmas carving shows i have for the year i let my mind wander again. to the most fantastic childhood anyone could ever have. and my favorite time of year as a child, Christmas… as a child of course, money is never a factor. we ,or i, want the Evel Knievel stunt cycle and that’s the be all. end all!!…but now looking back i see with the wisdom of a parent and now grand parents eyes, that money is not where the memories lie. Christmas traditions that i recall now so well, involved little money. Christmas lights looking was always so much fun and not only was it to see lights in houses but also the wondrous stores and store fronts downtown. stores use to go all out creating true winter wonderlands and would almost look like amusement parks for wide eyed kids. thermos full of hot chocolate and blankets to cover up in and riding through the rich part of town to see the amazing lights. i know i know, it ain’t about money i said, but they had the money to really decorate neat at night!! to this day we load the kids up and now my parents and ride all over town looking at lights with our thermos of hot chocolate and snacks. cady hills always provides beautiful lights, and of course im rolling across the top of those steep hills like a roller coaster, me and debbie and the kids throwing our hands up and whooping like on a roller coaster ride, and my momma always hollering for me to slow down and put my hands back on the steering wheel!!!… pop is grinning like a possum back there, i know ,thinking if he was driving and we were kids he would be doing the same thing.

We still go by the old funeral home downtown with the live animals in the nativity scene , i’m not sure what strikes the reverence ,and and serenity of this setting. if in fact, it’s at the funeral home and that always seems to invoke that, or the actual scene with the live animals . as a kid seeing the live sheep and goats there, made it all so much more real to us. the plastic mary and joseph and baby Jesus never seemed like just cold plastic figures. they seemed as real as the animals, and for a few minutes it seemed as though we were actually there. as though we didn’t dare laugh or giggle at the animals or holler for mom and dad to hurry and get out and see. in our minds we didn’t dare want to wake the sweet baby Jesus, or in anyway disturb the glorious moment that was unfolding right before our own eyes. we eased fingers through the fence just enough to feel the sheep and goats cool fur if they would come close enough and then slip ever so quietly back to the car …not wanting to awaken the savior of our world.

see if this will jog a memory…..sears Christmas catalog !!!…oh man what a book…well to us this was not just a book, as a kid this was THE BOOK!!! now if you were a only child maybe this won’t ring. but me and my brother wally ( not really his name but because i always say i had a beaver cleaver childhood i call him wally in my stories). we had two permanent markers usually one red and one black..the color chosen was to be used all holiday season and as if that wasn’t good enough one of us would be and x and the other and o. why we didn’t just write our names is now beyond me. but legendary battles would be waged over just whose turn it was to even look at it!!! then when it was your turn , trembling fingers would peer page after page reading every single word of every toy that remotely caught our interest. the major mat mason space station looked promising so an appropriate red x was placed by it to indicate to santa that this was a pick of mine!..then on to the next , turn the page and there it is….cue the angels singing and blinding lights beaming down on the page…..EVEL KNIEVEL STUNT CYCLE!!! this was it the toy to end all toys age appropriate for children 7 to 12 …that included me!!!… this thing was awesome…the ad showed it jumping cars and buses and canyons….CANYONS!!!!!!… OH MAN there were red x’s all over this page!!! then in comes wally claiming it was his turn…ughhhhh….thats fine mom just got done fixing popcorn balls so grab your ol black marker and have fun!!! who can ever forget watching the peanuts Christmas special what a staple , poor charlie browns tree but to be honest what is the part that really stands out…linus and his telling of the Christmas story. that peanut voice telling the story of Jesus birth, to me still is so haunting. i can remember no matter what we were doing at the time when it got to that part. we got eerily quiet, just like we had been at the nativity scene downtown earlier. and all eyes and ears were focused on this single cartoon character standing on stage telling us the meaning of it all.

At my last carving show of the year today, i watched as a father and his little son looked at my carvings. and when they got to the Christmas section with angels and santas, you could see the little boys eyes light up. he started pointing, and even though i couldn’t hear what he was saying i didn’t have too. i saw the excitement in his eyes and the wondrous joy on his face. and i thought what a great time in life.for the child, to be amazed by simple figures created in wood, by an extra large hairy feller.for me, to be the extra large hairy feller, so blessed to be able to create simple figures in wood, to spark the imagination.

i have been very blessed ,this past year and a half’s battle against cancer has open my eyes to so much. i think sometimes i took my carving for granted . i love carving, and it takes me back to a time in my youth spent with my grandfather creating in his leather shop. but times like today, to see an innocent child light up in true amazement at something. and when it’s something i was so blessed to be able to create. there is the reality check . and as they walked off hand in hand i wondered to myself was this one of those memories ..it cost them nothing to come in and look, the little boy was so excited smiling and pointing i wonder how long he’ll remember seeing my creations .

so put your wallets away, grab your kids or grand kids ,as is the case with me. fill your thermos with hot chocolate and hit the town. go see the lights and woop and holler and point with excitement, take them to see the nativity and whisper, look it’s the baby Jesus ,in their little ears. go home and fix popcorn to string together to put on the tree, while the charlie brown Christmas dvd is playing. then when you see linus headed on stage. tell them to be really quite ,linus is going to tell you the greatest story ever told to man.and all this was free, and created memories to last a life time. may God bless and keep you all, much love from BOOGER SWAMP.