I took a few moments to scan the latest chapter in My Story (now found in the Minnesota Years Tab) and I have to apologize for all the typos and mistakes. I warned that I was posting it un-corrected, but I didn't realize how loaded with errata it was.

So is the Christmas season treating you well. I find myself getting frazzled and tense along with the masses and when you think about it, how foolish that is. Instead of peace and contentment there are tensions and resentments. Perhaps, in my case, it is a basic selfishness. Quite frankly, I don't much like giving presents. Wait a minute. I LIKE giving presents. I don't like buying presents to give. At least I have a saving grace because I don't much care about receiving gifts either. That is a stretch from the way I was raised. My mother went absolutely mad at Christmas. She began buying gifts in June or July and wrapping in August. Often she would forget what was wrapped and to whom it was gifting and on Christmas morning after opening there would be a muttered, "That's not for you" and the present would be whisked out of your hands and given to someone else. In the early 70's I missed Christmas while I worked and the following Sunday, Don Bleu and family drove with me to have a delayed family Christmas. They were amazed when I opened 28 gifts. With the affluence that came with TDB's success I am sure his kids approached that total, if not in number in value. I'm sure most people don't get 4 footstools and a pen that writes under water for Christmas.

My main problem is that I gotten myself into a situation where I have no control over my holiday. I end up just going and doing what others tell me to do. At times I feel like the guy who followed the Wisemen's camels with a shovel. I have written somewhere on the site of a Christmas in Modesto when I made a huge pot of killer chili on Christmas Eve. I miss things like that. I still love Christmas but it is the concept rather than the reality that fills me with joy.

Sometime over the week-end I'll hit the key that delivers my internet Christmas cards. If you get one....great. If you didn't make the list...sorry. In either situation, I really do wish you a Happy Christmas and a wonderfully contented New Year.

In the meantime, I will trudge to where I am told, keep my mouth shut and feel like all my chestnuts are....

"....roasting on an open fire...."

Rob

PS: A listener from the 'old days' wrote and asked me a question about a song and group on a TV/radio commercial from back then. It seems familiar to me but I am drawing a memory blank. Not surprising. Here is the query....

...I'm thinking back to a commercial for Coca Cola back in the 60's and I'm wondering if you can tell me who the band was that did the commercial. The scene was on a beach and the band was singing, "Just a few feet back in a little white shack..." They were singing about getting a Coke from the snack shack at the beach."

Anyone want to solve this mystery?