I am young at heart. I will always laugh and play whenever I get the chance. I guess being a musician affords me this privilege. But, with age I’ve noticed that I look fondly on my past, where when I was younger I did my best to run away from it. I’ve had a good life. I really have. I have a great girl by my side, great friends, an amazing family and I’ve been given a voice to share with the world. What more could you ask for?
Christmas is always a time for reflection for me. My whole family is on the East Coast, well, most of them. There are a few of us scattered around the country but for the most part they are in New England. All of my Christmas memories are of New England. The smell of Eggnog, hot cider, cocoa, warm baked pies… Mmmmm Mmm. See, not all of an East Coast winter is brutal. Well, it’s brutal, don’t get me wrong, but we aren’t outside ALL of the time. And with that brutal winter you really enjoy these things. Someone who grew up outside of this kind of environment will never know how good it feels to take off layers of clothing and have a cup of hot cider put into your hands. And, in saying that… I’d be hard pressed to revisit this. Chuckle.
Growing up on the east coast, or ‘ice’ coast as the skiers in Colorado call it, we lived through each season. It wasn’t something you took a visit to see, it was a preparation. In the winter we would make sure our winter boots were out, coats, scarves, gloves, hats, etc. We made sure the shovel that was sitting in the garage was still operable, as well as sleds, toboggans, ski’s and skates were sharpened as well. Once the ice got cold enough and thick enough, our next door neighbor, Charlie Kent, would take his old jeep and plow the ice. Mr. Kent was a huge hockey fan and I believe played semi-pro. He had the hockey nets up and would also keep extra pucks and sticks in his breezeway. The rule was, if you use it you bring it back. He would plow a regulation sized hockey rink for us down on the pond. The snow drifts would be the wall but on occasion you’d have to go chasing after a puck. Great times and so many memories of winter in New England. So many memories that its hard to write down here in a short blog without creating a novel. I’ll stick with some of the highlights….
We were always fascinated with how thick the ice was on the pond behind our house. We’d play chicken to see who could get the closest to the edge before it broke. I remember one of the kids actually falling through and all of us were screaming not knowing what to do. Mrs. Franette (sp?) was in the house on the hill keeping an eagles eye on us in case such an incident did happen. I remember her in her bare feet running down the hill and onto the ice to get the boy out. Can’t remember which boy… I’m pretty sure it wasn’t either of her kids, Danny or Eddy. Anyway, that was the kind of trouble we got into at that age.
My cousins Wayne and Sandi Buckhout would always have a get together over at their place for Christmas. They have a gift shop called ‘The Cats Cradle’ in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Believe me, its a Winter Wonderland that rivals the Christmas Tree shops or anything commercial of that sort. Well, back when I was a kid one of my good friends, and second cousin, Dana Ritter and I would hightail it down into their basement to get dibs on the hockey table. Not air hockey… we’re going old school… levers and twirling hockey players. You can guess I’m sure that there was a Bruins Jersey involved. No other team exists to a New Englander. 🙂
In 1977 on the Bing Crosby show one my favorite musicians showed up on the set. David Bowie. Now, its not like we had youtube or anything like that, so I couldn’t rewind it and watch it again. It was there. It was live. If a word was whispered and you missed something it was [seemingly] gone forever. I watched it and sat for hours afterwards replaying it in my head. Almost 20 years later I got to revisit it again and again and again. Kind of like when I was introduced to Nick at Nite… another story for another time. 🙂 That song is still one of my favorites for this season. Here is the link Bing and David doing ‘Peace on Earth’ as well as a link of me doing Greg Lake’s ‘I Believe in Father Christmas’..
Merry Christmas everyone. And as my girlfriend likes to say, Mele Kalikimaka!
