Of all the Christmases (for that matter, any holiday), I can think of one that was wasted more stupidly than any other. No, not quite going out in field circus (though I almost had to). But it was quite bad.
About a week before, I was asked to go visit one of the hounders and his family for Christmas Day. (This is now the lead hounder). The arrangements were for me to visit that book study and spend the night there (I was in a different book study).
Well, Christmas Eve came. And, as I expected, they showed up to pick me up for that book study. We got there in plenty of time, as I went in the room (to make it harder for the hounders to figure out, I will not divulge the exact location in the house). The others in that book study showed up, and we had our hour wastefest. Following that, we had a pizza (it was fairly common to occasionally have treats after the book studies until sometime in the late 1990s). That took until about 9:15 or so before most of us were cleared out. Of course, there was one that was there another half hour, as always.
As it turned out, there was another guest. They had a family from (country omitted) spending the night there. There was one boy, that had to be about 4 or 5 at the time. And, soon after everyone else left, I was shown my room for the night. It was a spare room, used for home schooling classroom (another common occurrence among witlesses during that time). The accomodations were not that great, but that was the least of my problems with the arrangement.
Next morning. As everyone in the world was opening their presents to a Christmas tree aglow, I got up in a relatively quiet house. The boy also got up about the same time. As I mentioned, I almost got forced out in field circus. What saved me was that the father had to go in to work. It snowed during the night, and he ended up shoveling snow. (At least I got a white Christmas that year). So that scrambled that plan. Instead, I had the dubious privilege of visiting the A$$embly Hell while it was empty. There was also a video game system (again, I will not date it by mentioning the type or the games).
Well, we got to the a$$embly hell. The place was otherwise empty, and we had the tour of the auditorium and the halls. We were shown where the food was prepared, and the cafeteria. What a @#%$ waste of Christmas Day!
On the way back, we stopped at a Kingdumb Hell outside our territory. It too was empty. Again, it was a total waste. Then we stopped back home. There were a couple of toys that were probably relics from the early 1980s, and we listened to a few records where they were just about paranoid about every "bad" song. Finally, at about 3:00, I had enough of that wastefest.
For sure, it could have been worse. The weather forecast did not call for snow that day. Had it not snowed, I am sure I would have spent the whole damn day out in field circus. And that with a boy that is hardly school aged, who came from a foreign country and spoke little English. I sure hope never ever to have another Christmas like that one. Bah! Humbug! Next time, I want a real Christmas tree with some Christmas music going.
About a week before, I was asked to go visit one of the hounders and his family for Christmas Day. (This is now the lead hounder). The arrangements were for me to visit that book study and spend the night there (I was in a different book study).
Well, Christmas Eve came. And, as I expected, they showed up to pick me up for that book study. We got there in plenty of time, as I went in the room (to make it harder for the hounders to figure out, I will not divulge the exact location in the house). The others in that book study showed up, and we had our hour wastefest. Following that, we had a pizza (it was fairly common to occasionally have treats after the book studies until sometime in the late 1990s). That took until about 9:15 or so before most of us were cleared out. Of course, there was one that was there another half hour, as always.
As it turned out, there was another guest. They had a family from (country omitted) spending the night there. There was one boy, that had to be about 4 or 5 at the time. And, soon after everyone else left, I was shown my room for the night. It was a spare room, used for home schooling classroom (another common occurrence among witlesses during that time). The accomodations were not that great, but that was the least of my problems with the arrangement.
Next morning. As everyone in the world was opening their presents to a Christmas tree aglow, I got up in a relatively quiet house. The boy also got up about the same time. As I mentioned, I almost got forced out in field circus. What saved me was that the father had to go in to work. It snowed during the night, and he ended up shoveling snow. (At least I got a white Christmas that year). So that scrambled that plan. Instead, I had the dubious privilege of visiting the A$$embly Hell while it was empty. There was also a video game system (again, I will not date it by mentioning the type or the games).
Well, we got to the a$$embly hell. The place was otherwise empty, and we had the tour of the auditorium and the halls. We were shown where the food was prepared, and the cafeteria. What a @#%$ waste of Christmas Day!
On the way back, we stopped at a Kingdumb Hell outside our territory. It too was empty. Again, it was a total waste. Then we stopped back home. There were a couple of toys that were probably relics from the early 1980s, and we listened to a few records where they were just about paranoid about every "bad" song. Finally, at about 3:00, I had enough of that wastefest.
For sure, it could have been worse. The weather forecast did not call for snow that day. Had it not snowed, I am sure I would have spent the whole damn day out in field circus. And that with a boy that is hardly school aged, who came from a foreign country and spoke little English. I sure hope never ever to have another Christmas like that one. Bah! Humbug! Next time, I want a real Christmas tree with some Christmas music going.
