My Neck of the Woods

In my neck of the woods, it snowed right around 5 inches on Christmas Eve...  the same day that my wife and I celebrated Christmas 2020 with her son and his girlfriend and while they left our house at 6:30 pm it still took them over an hour to return home for a trip that usually takes 12 minutes.  That night, it was as cold as a witches tit in a brass bra or so we used to say in elementary school, even though we really had no idea what it actually meant or if was even possible.

The snow stayed on the ground until Sunday when a majority of it started to melt away and it will all be gone on Wednesday, two days from now when our temps rise into the low 60's.  I will take advantage of that warm day to remove our Christmas Decorations from the front yard which consists of 4 lighted deer plus 3 Christmas boxes also lit with lights.

I used 1/4 inch PVC pipe and electrical ties to secure the deer and the boxes from blowing away in the wind because the anchors that came with these items simply was not sufficient to do the job so I had to improvise even though I was never a Marine...  but, a sailor who liked to drink his lunch along with others of a like mind.

Christmas in East TN is not so much of a big deal for the people around here although many do put out all sorts of decorations and one or two houses tend to go a little over-board but as those people continue to age, what they put outside dwindles each year.

There were no Christmas Carolers walking around the neighborhood this year, nor has there ever been any in the 30 years that I have lived here.  That memory is one from my childhood and our neighborhood in Alexandria, VA...   actually, our neighborhood was Wellington Heights in between Hollin Hall and Hollin Hills Shopping Center, just off of Fort Hunt Road that paralleled Mount Vernon Blvd....  and Admiral Drive was just off of Morningside Drive.

After we walked around the neighborhood singing Carols to all those who could not leave their houses, we always returned to the basement of one of our neighbors where we had hot chocolate and glazed doughnuts.

In the 1950's and 1960's there was still a strong sense of COMMUNITY but that like most everything else that was good either faded away or died as we got more technologically minded and became more mistrusting of our neighbors...  and, started locking our doors at night just like they do in most of the big cities.

As we become more affluent then crime increases as well...  nowadays, I trust my neighbors as about as far as I can throw them with the wind at my back.  COVID makes the holidays even more cautious and it was apparent inside our house when my wife's son and his girlfriend both wore their facemasks when not eating even though we maintained a safe distance of more than 6 feet away.