Christmas In
July?-With Laura Perkins In Mind
From The Pen
Of Zack James
Sam Lowell
sitting in his favorite chair, the one that allowed him to slide down into the
prone position to take a nap to rest his weary bones after a hard day of, well,
of retirement, formal retirement anyway, now that another Christmas was upon
him and Laura. He had been thinking about that Christmas a couple of years
before, back in 2013. That was the year when, at Sam’s urgent urging, if that
is possible to do, they decided the hell with another frostbite sad old weary
winter in New England, the hell with the formalities of a family Northeast Christmas
which they both dreaded anyway, had since childhood, and took off for sunny
Florida, took off for Naples a place that previously had been where they said
goodbye to winter with a week’s reprieve just before April the past several
years. It was not like they had not tried to go down to Florida before at
Christmas time but the previous time had been a disaster, had been nothing but
a lonely motel room, unseasonable downpour rain and a Christmas dinner garnished
with marshmallows on their sweet potatoes-whoever heard of such a thing.
This last time,
as Sam had assured me when he told me about it one night in January after they
had gotten back all tanned, Laura, and red faced sunburn, Sam, as we were
sitting in Jack’s in Cambridge cutting up old touches things were to be
different since they decided rent a condo through Air B&B and from the
description of the place complete with pool, spa and like amenities the whole
experiment was a far better deal than running out to frost-bound Saratoga
Springs in forbidden upstate New York to go through the dreary ritual of
presents hysteria and sated dinners.
Still Sam
said although things had worked out well he had been weirded out a little by
what he called Christmas in July. As a hard-bitten New England born and bred
boy some of the sounds and sights of Christmases past had lost their edge in
too sunny and big easy Florida but like he said things worked out well and they
planned thereafter to make it a new yearly ritual, their new yearly ritual (and
have done so).
I don’t
really remember all the odd-ball quirky things Sam mentioned that night at Jack’s
especially after we had ordered our third shots of Haig &Haig. I too am a
New England boy who however has remain true to the New England frostbite winter
although as I write this little sketch the temperature outside in Carver in
about sixty-five degrees, so hardly a frostbite moment, although surely a
relentless remember that climate change is dead-ass upon us and we had better
begin to do something about it more than “sense of the meeting” accords in
Paris which are only the beginning of wisdom. I do remember Sam getting all excited about telling
me that he wore shorts on the trip down (and back as well) to “prove” that he
was not some tourist now. Laura, he said, just rolled her eyes at that one, a typical
Laura response when he touts something goofy like that.
Oh yeah, when
they arrived in Naples and had taken a rest at the condo they rented (which
both agreed was excellent and as described in the Air B&B documentation)
they decided to go to Fifth Avenue, the heart of tourist Naples, a place where
locals and tourists alike, at least the women, including Laura, like to “dress
to the nines” to have ice cream and to see what the place would look like all decorated
for Christmas in a world with palm trees and no pines, no Christmas pines
anyway. So dressed in a tee shirt and shorts in December odd in itself (Sam is not
much for dressing to the nines even in Boston, especially since he has been
retired) and Laura all dolled up they walked up Fifth Avenue which unlike in March
was practically deserted (the Midwestern families with school vacation kids
show up then and mob everything from beaches to restaurants) although the sight
a huge artificial Christmas tree tastefully decorated in the main plaza was
startling. Still Sam found it incongruous to have those palm trees all lighted
up.
And so the
week went, with Sam and Laura laughing about having to take a time check as
Christmas approached and they found themselves eating outside at restaurants,
sitting on the beach half naked in the baking sun. Had to laugh the most when
they on a very hot Christmas Eve Day found themselves on a local beach, a beach
crowded with families and young ones seemingly oblivious to the fact that Santa
was due pretty soon, and not even muttering any words about how he was going to
get about without some snow to make his work a little easier. Laura had remarked
that maybe they have different traditions down in South Florida where they probably
have never seen snow at least that would stick. If and when it does come then
even those in Paradise will know that something must be done, even the most
right-wing “snowbird” will be hollering for relief and quick since why else
would they have invested in Florida property to get away from the damn snow,
wind, ice, and frigid temperature.
Hey, I remember
the best story though, had kind of forgotten about it since that was a couple
of years ago, but the season kind of dictates that it should be remarked upon
here. One Christmas morning Sam was taking his usual walk, jog, trot, whatever
(that last is what he calls it especially when he has had a bad day trying to
jump-start himself early in the morning which is when he had to do those
exercises or forget it because later in the day the legs are too gamy) along
the North Gulf Shore Beach when he spied two young women, probably from the
look of them college students although he admits to being less sure on young
ages the older he gets, sitting across from each other on a blanket in the sand
with wrapped Christmas gifts in front of them. On his way back he noticed the
two still sitting there but with the gifts now open and the sun beginning to
come up over the horizon. Yeah, a Christmas smack out of some July. Maybe Laura
was onto something when she remarked about traditions being very different in
the sun-belt.
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