Yule, Christmas, Hanukkah, All That
By Jim Culp
December 24, 2019
It is that time of year again. There is hustle and
bustle everywhere. People are moving about… shopping, caroling, pushing,
shoving, and all that happy holiday business. It will all culminate into some
sort of event tomorrow morning at various times. Some people have one day off for
this event, others have many. Some make it a two-hour thing; some make it eight
days or more. I used to know guys at various jobs who didn’t take off all year
long until December. They take xx days of calendar leave, but it would last from
December 5th to January 5th. I don’t know what in hell
they did with all that time, but that was their prerogative.
When I was a wee lad in El Paso, Texas, we celebrated
a type of holiday that was semi-secular and semi-Christian. We’d set out
stockings for Santa Clause to fill with goodies and wrap up something we bought
or stole to give to our mother and stepdad. Some Christmas holidays were a full
house, others were just four or five of us. I liked it when there were lots of
folks there, like my older brothers and sisters. Then there were grandkids, and
that made it even better. We’d pretend that Santa Clause brought us presents
and filled the stockings and do our Christian diligence by saying prayers
before we ate and before bed.
Those holiday times dwindled down to very small
events when we moved to New Mexico and there were just four of use in the
house. It was very blouse’ and we had to go to more church, but that involved after
church food, so it wasn’t so bad.
When I joined the Army, my first duty station was a
forward unit in the Republic of Korea. We were a forward bridge unit, about 13
kilometers south of the DMZ. Christmas there is not celebrated by the locals, but
it sure was by American soldiers. We had great chow (mess-hall food) for at
least two days. Our chow there was never too bad, but it was great on holidays.
Turkey, ham, all the fixings. Then we’d have a huge party at one of the clubs in
the village and get shit-faced on every liquid we could pour down our throats. Time
went by, and I had a child of my own. I carried on the tradition that I grew up
with and gave my child the same lessons about Santa Clause on the toy side, and
Jesus, Mary and Joseph on the religious side.
At 0400 on December 25th, 1989, I kissed
my wife and one-year old girl as I left Junction City to leave with my unit for
Saudi Arabia to prepare for the Persian Gulf War. We had fruit cakes, candy,
and tea on Christmas morning. The rest of that time is another story.
In December of 2003, my Army unit was in the Tigris
River Valley in Iraq. The mess hall put out a good spread for us, and no one went
hungry. Two of my officers and I had a few drinks of Turkish whiskey that I received
from a truck driver. It was the best whiskey I ever drank…if you know what I mean.
Life since then has been good, bad, and somewhere in
between for sixteen years. Times have changed, and commercialism has made
holidays something that I can do without. But I will always remember those
special Christmas mornings with family…blood and brother. Both are precious.
Have a wonderful holiday season and may your Yule Tide
be rich with love and blessings.
-Jim
