The Editorial Team wish all our friends and readers around the world a very Merry Christmas and hope you will continue to read the blog in the New Year.
Christmas
Past, Present and Future
This year, I will sail through my seventy-fifth Christmas on this unique planet Earth.
I can recall many memorable ‘Nativities’, one including a boy in a ‘Scooby-Doo outfit’.
Who, repeatedly poked and punched a shepherd, in celebration of the Virgin birth.
I remember one very merry ‘beery’ Christmas Eve, singing carols with Paul in chorus.
And in the railway underpass near Oulton Broad North Station, sitting in something damp.
And hoping, when we had sobered up, that no one who knew us professionally, saw us.
Do I still enjoy Turkey with stuffing and the seasonal over-cooked sprout?
Nowadays, meat, poultry, and processed food – “ne’er will pass my lips”!
And sadly imbibing, just one cup of hot Marmite, promotes the onset of gout.
Now I dine on fish and veggies and have shown all meats the door.
Can I still drink beer by the gallon and dance the night away?
No chance but nostalgically, I might venture out onto a disco-floor.
Which year did ‘Dad’ dancing become a slow ‘Grandpa’ gavotte?
And why do I involuntarily grunt, when I bend to pick up all the bloody stuff I drop?
And when did my personal story run so short on pages and plot?
Now ‘Yules’ are much less rowdy and run on ‘reduced’ or ‘alcohol-free’ fuel.
Because men of a certain age, get to love ‘staying in’ their favourite chair.
If the frost forecast for the ‘Feast of Saint Stephen’, is all too even and cruel.
Then again, life is good and far too short, to be sad Grinch or solstice hermit.
So don hats, scarves and gloves, load up the sleighs and go reindeer handed into the night.
And be as ‘Santa-Merry’ and ‘seasonally-bladdered' as old age and body permit!
George Roberts Dec 2024
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