Memories of Christmas

My memories of Christmas are filled with family, love and music. Growing up in Montreal, a white Christmas was pretty much a lock. Montreal winters were snowy, cold and long. As kids we didn’t notice because we all enjoyed outdoor activities, tobogganing, playing hockey and pleasure skating. Pleasure skating was actually a great and affordable Friday night date for young people. You could pick up your favourite girl, take her to the local rink or pond and skate away the evening, ending it with a hot chocolate and a kiss, if you were lucky.
But I digress; this blog is about Christmas and the holiday season. Note, when I mentioned what I remember most about Christmas, I mentioned, family, love and music. Presents were not a big part of what made it special. We seem to have gotten away from that lately. Gifts, given and received, seem to have more importance today than back then. I do remember certain gifts; most vivid was my first unused guitar! As a young teenager I told my Dad I wanted a guitar. His concern was, would I stick to it? Or would it just be a passing phase and gather dust under the bed? He made a deal with me; find a cheap, used guitar and if I stuck with it he’d buy me a brand new one. Problem was I was responsible for securing this used guitar with my own limited funds. Within a week I found one! My friend Alan down the street had an old Stella steel string guitar with a crack like the San Andreas Fault in the body. The strings were so high off the finger board I could fit a HB pencil between the strings and the frets. After intense negotiations we arrived at a purchase price! Fifty cents and a pair of hockey shin pads in exchange for this challenging musical instrument! DEAL!!!
I spent three months building huge calluses on my fingertips and an aching wrist from squeezing so hard on these elevated strings. Every day after school, after dinner, after homework I drove the family to distraction as I worked my way through the E-Z Method of Guitar. Not as E-Z as it seems! Christmas was coming and back then, unlike today, we didn’t really know what we were getting for Christmas ahead of time so Christmas morning when I woke up to a shiny NEW Kent nylon string guitar I couldn’t hide my excitement!  I was thrilled for two reasons; one, I had a new guitar, with nylon (less painful) strings and also because I had passed the “stick to it” test with Dad.
And all these years, guitars are still a huge part of my life so I guess Dad, I REALLY did pass the test!!!!
Now the three things I remember most about Christmas, FAMILY, LOVE and MUSIC : FAMILY, Wow! We were a family of five Mum, Dad, sisters Donna and Sandy and me. Sadly now we are a family of two ; Sandy and me. Mum, Dad and Donna have passed on but their memories live forever in our hearts.
LOVE: I never realized how much love we had in our little family until many years later when I saw other families and realized  what we had. I now know that love was the axis around which our whole family revolved. Cool!
Finally MUSIC:  My Mum played piano unlike anyone I’ve ever heard. She played EVERYTHING with three chords but somehow it WORKED.  The Shadow of Your Smile with only C, F and G. The hard part was at Christmas time, when I would go home to visit she would insist I “jam” with her. I always complained about the three chords AND the same key, C!  Today as I sit here holding my guitar, I realize I would give everything I own just to play one more “set” with her!  In fact I just played mum’s version of Shadow on my old guitar. Sort of like hearing Heart and Soul with just one hand but it worked.
So lets all take time during this festive season to look back on all the good things in our lives and all the gifts we are blessed with.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. Thanks for listening and see you out there!!!
DG