The year changed from 2023 to 2024 and I took down my last edition of the Granville Freeman State Farm Insurance calendar. The end of an era! Granville, and calendars too, I suppose.
I used to joke that Granville only gave me his calendars so he could get his name in the paper. Look-a-here Granville, a freebie! Thanks for the memories and hope you are living in the lap of a luxurious retirement.
It doesn’t seem like folks hand out premiums like calendars and that sort of thing with their business’ name advertised on them as much as they once did. There was a time not so long ago that most everyone had their name on something or the other. Calendars, ink pins, chip clips, you name it. Perhaps the Internet doomed that practice as well many others. Today, everyone wants you to “like” and “share” something.
On my bedroom dresser there sits a little glass Piggy Bank that I got from the Newton County Bank what seems like a hundred years ago, but it was probably more like 50 years ago. It was a premium they gave out for opening a Christmas Club savings account. I was never very good with Christmas Club accounts. I would start one with about $10 and never add much more to it through the year. Come Christmas time I would get my $10 back and start all over again. At least I kept up with the Piggy Bank — although I never even filled it all the way up before emptying it out again — because Newton County Bank is gone now too.
Remember S&H Green Stamps? Those were super premiums from certain grocery stores and once the correct number of books were filled with the stamps the holder could order just about anything for free from the S&H Green Stamp catalog.
Free stuff! Boy, those were the days!
It was a quiet New Year’s Eve celebration at our house. Quiet, and quite a change from 30, maybe 40 years ago when we would play the Prince song “1999.” Some people remember the words, I’m not certain, because it was on a cassette and I no longer have a cassette player, but it went something like “Tonight we gonna party like it’s 1999.”
I suppose you could say, we practiced a “few” times. In fact we practiced New Year’s Eve like it was 1999 every year until it finally was 1999. That’s when we finally got to throw that party we had practiced so hard on, ushering in the new century. If I remember correctly it went much like we had practiced.
We made a time capsule and we asked everyone who came to the party to bring something to put in that brown ornate box that still sits in our parlor. Then we padlocked it and planned to keep it locked for 25 years or so. Then we would open it up, and close it up, every now and then to get something out or to see if something might be in there. I don’t think it is even locked anymore.
I remember some of the things we dropped in. My dad put in his old pocket knife from his days of working the produce counter at the A&P and my mom put in a copy of my hometown newspaper The Newton Record. The A&P is long gone and The Newton Record folded about 10 or 15 years ago. That is a shame.
Mom’s gone now too and Dad will be 91 on the 21st. Several folks that were around when we fixed that time capsule are no longer with us, and those of us that are still kicking aren’t kicking anything like we were in 1999. I suppose we should simply be thankful that we are still kicking at all as we begin a new year.
Remembering all those party practices, and all those good souls, can be a little depressing, but I do know that they would want us to keep their spirit alive just like it was in 1999. So perhaps we have.
We’ve not hosted, nor gone to a New Year’s Eve party in years and honestly I don’t believe we’ve missed anything. These days if we even stay awake ‘till the stroke of midnight it is considered a holiday miracle.
Our Christmas night dinner gathering this year was one of the most enjoyable we’ve ever had I think, and I’m going to miss the holidays a little bit too, I also think. The music, the laughter, the hustle and bustle...and at times I miss those that have gone on a little more than at other times of the year.
But the days started getting a little longer — a very little bit — last week, and soon the sun will still be shining at quitting time, whatever time that might be.
In addition, we have two weddings to attend in two weekends next month, one in New Orleans and the other in Jackson so we’ll be getting busy fast.
In six months — give or take — it will be vacation time at the beach and the thought of, and planning for, that is always something that keeps us going during the dreary winter months.
The thing that is keeping me going, and going good, right now is that I’ve already had a couple of ripe tomatoes to pick in 2024. That my friends is a record, and I finally beat my brother-in-law! On top of that my dear wife and daughter gave me a green house for Christmas, so my gardening planning for the year 2024 officially began on December 25, 2023.
December 26 was a big day too. We finally trapped the raccoon in the attic. Praise the Lord, now please help us out with those squirrels.
I guess with the holidays behind us it is time to get things back on track. Time to get the economy back on track. It is time for the governor and our legislators to get on the same page and work together for the people of this state. And it is past time for the Republicans and the Democrats in Washington to drop their own selfish agendas and get to work for the American people. Now if we can get all that done, before December 31, 2024 then we might just want to go ahead and plan another party like we did back in 1999.
Happy New Year!
