Dorie’s Different Reality

is another man’s treasure  Yesterday, we had an enjoyable visit to the Antique Mall. I poked around and admired for over an hour. I gather it’s a competitive business in the sense that the people who rent the spaces expect the leasees to keep their stock attractive and seasonal. In that respect a lot of the little displays were done up for Christmas- what fun! I love the decor from years past. Do you remember the little caroler candles,  or the little “brushy” christmas trees? Boxes of tragically fragile beautiful glass ornaments, a few lovingly preserved. I love these things! They had strings of “old” christmas lights, like the Noma bubble lights. I wouldn’t dare plug ‘em in, but with the old wires and the funky plugs, it sure takes me back to yesteryear. I loved those moments when you plugged in the lights and one went “KAPOW”.  One vendor had 45rpm records of Christmas songs.  Remember when you could stack records up on the record player? “Rockin’ around the Christmas tree, At the Christmas party hop…”  Something I like, and I admit they’re kind of tacky, are the injection molded figures- the big plastic nativity sets, giant light-up Santas.  I don’t own any of these, but they make me smile. The equivalent of plastic flamingoes for the other seasons of the year.

Speaking of tacky, we have a neighbor down the road that just goes overboard on the Christmas decorations.  Not in a good way, not with any planning to have a theme. Just if it lights up, blows up, moves, plays music or you can stick it up on the roof, he’s got it. He should be the cultural liason between Big Lots and the Chinese tacky decoration industry!
Please note sexist Dorie said “HE” because I think overboard outdoor decor is often a gentleman’s form of Christmas cheer.  We women read magazines with pictures of elegant fruit wreaths, golden angels, candles at the windows. We make ourselves crazy with crafting and cooking and shopping for just the right things to make a Christmas “just like the ones we used to know” Or that we’d like to know. 
It can all get to be too much. I saw a house the other day with at least six of the big inflatable decorations- a little townhouse!  I understand how the Homeowners Associations might convene emergency meetings this time of year. You see stories on the news about those people who spend three months putting up the giant Christmas light/sound display. Then imagine the state of the neighbors living next to that for six weeks!  The other day, I drove past a fairly new age 55+ community and noticed that the only visible decorations were candles in the windows. Not a plug-in deer in sight! Thought to myself, “oh, they must have some serious covenants about decorations”  But still even the candles made a cheery sight.

Or I Can Watch It On TV: President Bush is coming to Mount Airy tomorrow! He’s going to speak at a church as part of World AIDS Day. The church supports a mission to AIDS orphans in Africa. I don’t live in Mount Airy, but I live close enough that if I got up very early, I could go down there and be part of the crowd hoping to catch a glimpse. I’ve never seen a President- not even a lame-duck one. Yesterday, I felt like, I wanted to go down there. Today, not sure. I have that bumper sticker on my car “Question Authority-Before They Question You” Would that get me detained by the Homeland Security Police? I’m a short, wide, middle-aged mostly white woman- the most insidious form of subversive!
Years ago, my friend Elli, little (about age 3) Pamela and I went down to the Virginia suburbs when Prince Charles and Diana were making a visit. Actually it was kind of cool. The crowd was really excited- lots of signs and balloons. There were some interesting sharpshooter guys up on roofs around the crowd- a higher level of security than I’d ever seen before. But then Charles’ uncle was murdered by the IRA a few years earlier, so he probably travelled with his own security team. Anyway, we saw enough of him that I can truthfully say he’s a lot better looking in real-life than in photos (I understand, I’m kind of like that too) Diana was really tall and skinny and was wearing a suit without stockings (did she get a runner right before it was time to leave?) When the public was allowed to tour the same exhibit that the Royals had seen, we were all given “Charles and Diana Wedding Coins” in the little collector box- still have ours! Not quite like meeting Elvis, but it was a fun day.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 10:18 am and is filed under Baby Boomers, Maryland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.