Goodfellows52: 'Tis the season to appreciate your family

Goodfellows52: 'Tis the season to appreciate your family: I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. ~ Charles Dickens AUBURN, Maine — Whenever they walk thro...

'Tis the season to appreciate your family

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.  ~ Charles Dickens

AUBURN, Maine — Whenever they walk through the door at the end of a day, I know I am one lucky SOB, and I don’t need a holiday to remind me of my precious family. For me, it is the most wonderful time of the year — all year long.

Losing loved ones and friends have taught us all that there is no certainty in life and our small worlds often change in a heartbeat when tragedy strikes. Nobody is here forever and time has a way of whittling down the herd.

But I see no harm in celebrating Christmas — a holiday that forces friends and family to take a timeout from multi-tasking and sit at a dinner table together without the distraction of computers and cell phones.

No Facebook, Twitter, or My Space! When we gather at the dinner table, face-to-face conversations begin — and no topic is taboo. Discussions about sports, religion or the morons who run Congress turn into a war of words as we look into the whites of our eyes. It’s not pretty, but it beats texting or posting nonsense on a social media Web site. There is nothing like a heated discussion at the dinner table. It’s pass the ham and fire off fusillade of acerbic opinions during Christmas dinner.

If you find a way to ignore the commercialism and pressure of emptying your wallet to outspend your family members for gifts, Christmas is a great excuse to sit on the sofa, watch Clarence set George Bailey straight and recover from a tryptophan high from the turkey. It also allows me to ponder the more important questions about “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I always wondered why Clarence didn't kick Potter’s butt all around the county for being so underhanded.

For me, Christmas and all the trimmings makes me realize that I was lucky enough to spend another year with my wife and son. The yuletide is also a not-so subtle reminder that there will come a day when our gatherings will cease.

With 1 and 6 Americans swelling the ranks of the poor, I feel fortunate and guilty at the same time for having enough money to cook a turkey and shrimp linguine for my family. There are gifts under the tree, food on the table and heat in the house. 

I am damn lucky.

I am not an Ebenezer wannabe who saw this holiday as a humbug before a bunch of ghosts ganged up on the old sourpuss. What’s wrong with throwing up a tree and turning your house into a giant neon sign, anyway? Presents are welcomed and a belly full of turkey and an endless stream of pies give me a damn good excuse to make merry on this day.

For years, I travelled down the Maine turnpike to visit my parents and get together with nearly two dozen people on Christmas Eve. It was an event I looked forward to every year until my mother died and my father found out he had Alzheimer's - a cruel disease that is slowly and agonizingly destroying his mind. Over the years, death has whittled down my list of friends and family.

So I decided to remain in Maine and enjoy a quiet holiday. I haven’t stayed at home during Christmas in years, and I don’t miss the two-hour ride to Boston.

The next two days will be spent exchanging presents and eating good food on a cold winter mornings in front of a wood stove heated by ash wood that was given to me from a generous neighbor. I will chop wood, cook a big breakfast and large dinner — just the three of us on Christmas Day.

And when the tree comes down and the holiday lights are packed away, the memories of another loving Christmas with my son and wife will see me through the new year.

Goodfellows52: It's beginning to look like insanity

Goodfellows52: It's beginning to look like insanity: Our tree, outdoor lights and Anthony and Terri make three. “ The best Christmas of all is the presence of a happy family all ...

It's beginning to look like insanity

Our tree, outdoor lights and Anthony and Terri make three.

“The best Christmas of all is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up with one another.”

- author unknown

AUBURN, Maine — The warning signs began appearing just before Halloween.

I didn't notice the first few clues of impending mayhem as I meandered around the aisles. But there they were there, right in front of my face.I figured all that madness was still a month and a half away.

When Halloween passed, that's when all hell broke loose!

Perhaps it was in the dead of night and under the cover of darkness when retailers gave the order to remove all Halloween decorations and replace them with trinkets of good cheer.

Thanksgiving was about to take a back seat to the craziest holiday of all — Christmas.

After all, Christmas was ONLY 55 days away, and there was not a moment to lose when battering consumers with good cheer. Thanks to greed, commercialism and capitalism run amok, the most wonderful time of year has become an orgy of spending.

For nearly 60 days, blatant reminders are in your face 24-7. It always begins with a just few aisles featuring Christmas decorations before all department stores reach Defcon 5, which is a level of commercial readiness that would keep the U.S. Marines on their toes. Stores go right to work ambushing customers with deals on toys, clothes and appliances.

Thanksgiving has become the gateway holiday to the most ludicrous day of all — Black Friday — a day that usually lives in infamy. Stuffed and groggy consumers rise early and venture into the night to shove aside or mace their fellow man to muscle their way in line to buy a flat-screen TV. Christmas cheer turns into jeers as herds of shoppers wait in the cold for the doors to open. They can act like lunatics during a shopping frenzy that would make any serial killer turn around and walk out the door.

The push-and-shove conflict erupts in departments stores across the U.S. and garners nationwide TV coverage. For me, it is one of those "who gives a damn" stories that dominates the news cycle for 24 hours. And it gives network cheerleaders an excuse to report that the nation has clawed its way out of this endless depression. Of course, we all know that is not true.

But all this shopping hijinks is a pleasant distraction from a planet in peril and the bunch of fools who screwed up Congress.

I avoid all stores at all costs on this particular day. I would be a no-show even if stores were giving away their products. The last thing I want to do after stuffing my face with turkey is get up at 3 a.m. and have a throw-down with ravenous consumers in the middle of a congested mall.

Black Friday is also TV's and radio's cue to begin working over consumers with 30 days of Christmas music and specials that make me want to take my chances with the Ghost of Christmas future. I search the radio dial in vain to find a rock-and-roll song. Eric Clapton's "I feel free" works for me.

But I do not subscribe to Scrooge's warped thinking. He was one SOB before three ghosts took the old man out for walk and scared the living crap out of him.

There is a beautiful tree taking up most of my parlor and outdoor Christmas lights illuminating cold winter nights. So I won't need a visit from Jacob Marley to convince me about the importance of this holiday.

For me, Christmas is a celebration of family and an opportunity share some time with those who are still here. All the hoopla surrounding this holiday is like the trimmings on a Christmas tree. For many Americans who are unemployed or lost loved ones, this is not the most wonderful time of year. There are empty seats at the dinner table, and many of us are celebrating the holiday with a skimpy dinner that Bob Cratchit would find impossible to enjoy.

All this good cheer and hope lasts a mere 30 days, and then we all jump back into the rat race. We quickly pack away decorations and throw out the tree, acting like nothing ever happened.

But I can't help wondering why we all can't keep this frame of mind throughout the year. Why only 30 days? How about making it a full 365 for the greater good? Why does all this goodwill toward men suddenly disappear?

Dickens had it right when he wrote: "and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!"

And oh by the way — Merry Christmas.

Goodfellows52: A state with a glorious history

Goodfellows52: A state with a glorious history: The menacing Gatling gun at the Maine Historical Society in Augusta. Muskets used during the American Revolution. Another view o...

A state with a glorious history

The menacing Gatling gun at the Maine Historical Society in Augusta.

Muskets used during the American Revolution.

Another view of the menacing Gatling gun at the Maine Historical Society in Augusta.

Union colonel Joshua Chamberlain's revolver is on display.

A make-shift Maine cannon is on display.

Water-cooled machine guns line the wall at the Maine Historical Society.

A Hotchkiss cannon is a featured piece at the Society

A Japanese mountain Howitzer is an eye-opener. There is hole in the protective shield that was pierced by an American shell, killing the gun crew.

A Lewis machine gun, featured the movie, "The Sand Pebbles," is now a museum artifact.

My wife and son stand under a Huey helicopter, the perfect symbol of the Vietnam War, is mounted just outside the Maine Military Historical Society.

My wife and I stand next to a battle tank at Camp Keyes.

"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."

Maya Angelou

AUGUSTA — We have read about these devastating weapons of the past in library books, but we never thought we would find ourselves staring down the barrels of a Gatlin gun or Hotchkiss cannon.

These were the weapons of their day, wreaking havoc on battlefields across the world, and here we were, getting up close and personal with hundreds wartime museum pieces, which are on display at the Maine Military Historical Society. The area is crowded with donated relics from wars involving Mainers who put it all on the line for their country. There are displays of artifacts from each war Mainers have served in since America's independence.

The Society is located next to Augusta Airport and Camp Keyes where a mounted Huey helicopter — the perfect symbol of the Vietnam war — stands outside the doors. The unique historical society is only open the first Sunday of the month for four hours, but appointments can be made to visit the site.

When you step through the door, a polished army jeep from World War II sits off to the right. Across from this rugged jeep rests a menacing Gatlin gun, which was used to train Maine troops during World War II. Although it was obsolete by the turn of the 20th Century, Mainers trained on the vintage gun to prepare for war as hostilities spread across the globe in 1941.

The American Revolution War section features muskets used in combat and other memorabilia from a conflict that opened the door to freedom for Americans eager make their own way in the world without King George III calling the shots.

Civil war artifacts include Union colonel Joshua Chamberlain's six-shot revolver and a handful of rifles used during the Civil War. Chamberlain's heroic bayonet charge down Little Round Top during the battle of Gettysburg is remembered at the Historical Society.

The French-made Hotchkiss cannon, with its narrow barrow mounted on two large carriage wheels, is small but packed a punch with its .42-caliber shell. The cannon was first used in the American Indian and Spanish American wars.

There is also a display of various water-cooled machine guns, including the Colt and Maxim machine guns. There are also  tank-killing guns and a captured Japanese mountain howitzer. There is a hole in the howitzer's protective shield that was pierced by an American shell and killed the cannon's crew.

But astute visitors will realize that the Maine Military Historical Society deserves more than a large room to pay homage to Mainers who went to war for their country.