December 2008 Calendar Picture and Story

Friday
Jul 30, 2010
2:02:23 PM

Welcome

Calendar Photo and Story For December 2008

With the Christmas tree in the window and the larger lights outside in our little oak tree, I noticed the happy reflection captured in the photo below.

Some of the little ornaments on the tree came from the trees Carolyn's parents decorated when she as a child. One, a Santa Claus, she made over thirty years ago and we have been enjoying it ever since.

I know, these days, children are often too worldly and cynical to believe in Santa, and that a debate goes forward about what they should be told. But when I was a kid, my younger brother and I really believed.

The year was 1963 and I was seven years old and had been working on a "Santa Discovery Plan" for a couple of years. My brother, 5, was agreeable, so together we plotted to sneak down to the living room door at the end of the hall and "camp-out" in front of the small fan-blown oil heater that was all our Florida home required. I often slept there because I loved the warmth and the way the small flickering oil flame shown through the slats against the opposite wall.

That year we received many gifts from family and Santa. My brother got his first bicycle and I received my best gift of all time, a Mattel Vac-U-Form...

... for which I had been begging for over a year and hoping I was old enough! It taught me that making things (I'm still at it!) was what I was all about. Actually I still have it, but can't find any of the little plastic sheets it molds... darn! Anyway, that gift isn't what my story is about.

Amongst our many gifts, my parents, having two active boys, (Calling me active was as inadequate as calling the Queen Mary a large boat!) decided to include an inexpensive, unlikely, but hopefully fun gift, "Bobo the Fighting Clown!"

I can't believe I was actually able to find a catalog advertisement for the exact item... that's our BoBo!! He was HUGE, had a sand-weighted bottom that made him always stand up, and had a large puffy red nose that squeaked when you hit it! On the back, his backside was pictured including the packet in polka-dotted cloth attached to his stick. Mom and dad knew they got it right when, despite the many nicer and more expensive gifts, it was BoBo that got used, hauled outside for sessions with the neighbors, and generally beat-up constantly in singles or tag-teams whenever we weren't eating or sleeping! But I'm getting ahead of my story...

That Christmas Eve, at the supper table, my parents, sensing some kind of plot, solemnly warned us about interfering with Santa in ANY WAY! It was OK to leave cookies and milk near the tree, but we were to made to understand that if Santa saw either of us awake, all of our gifts would instantly disappear and we would be left with only sticks in our stockings!

I was so determined to catch a glimpse of Santa at work that, while my brother slept, I waited patiently for mom and dad to go to bed. Assuming we were both asleep, they inflated BoBo, assembled the bicycle, and carefully arranged all the gifts around the Christmas tree, not far from where I planned my stakeout later.

After hours of sticking fingers in my eyes and tapping my forehead, I figured mom and dad were asleep and that Santa would be arriving soon. Quietly, I awoke my brother and slowly... carefully... we crept out of the room and down the hall to our post near the heater. The heater fan was running and the warm breeze carried out into the living room. Even before we got to the end of the hall, I saw the bicycle gleaming in the near darkness. Drat! I had waited too long and Santa had already made his rounds! I whispered, "We're too late!" and almost turned to head back to bed. Just then my brother gripped my leg with unaccustomed ferocity and, when I looked down, pointed over toward the tree. His huge eyes looked frightened, so I quickly turned to look and you can only imagine my shock when I saw a big fat man, dressed all in red and white, slowly weaving too and fro!!! WE HADN'T MISSED SANTA! WE HAD CAUGHT HIM IN THE ACT OF PLACING OUR PRESENTS!!!

I don't know how we did it, but somehow we made it back into our beds almost instantly! I can't say how long my brother huddled under his covers shivering, but know that I shook for hours as I contemplated the miracle we had beheld and the dire consequences if Santa had seen us. We were careful, so I was pretty sure we weren't caught, but...

Needless to say I was relieved the next morning when I met BoBo and realized my mistake. So... Santa had already been and went before our little trek... Whew!

Sadly, I must report that BoBo, while influential, had a very short stay in our happy household. Less than week later the family made a trek to our cabin, a couple of hours away on Lake Okeechobee, We took along BoBo, my Vac-U-Form, and many other toys with which to entertain ourselves while dad and Paw-Paw were out fishing. My grandparents (mom's side) were down from Virginia and on our second night there, my grandmother, while preparing the kitchen for supper, set poor BoBo over out of the way near the refrigerator and heater.

All the time we were eating, BoBo stood tall with the occasional gyration, seemingly waiting for us to finish and punch him around. One good punch, however, quickly revealed that the radiant heat from the propane had melted a basketball sized hole in his back which the hot air kept open and inflated until he was moved out of the heat.

So, after revealing his second surprise, BoBo bit the dust. He had only lasted a few days and was never replaced, but his indelible impression was secure in our young minds. In a heater he was born and in a heater passed. Alas, poor BoBo! I knew him well.

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