The Ghosts of Christmas Past...part #2

More Rain overnight....more that we just don't need, and showers in the forecast off and on for the next couple of days....at least we are not forced to dig out for the Blizzard snows of the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, as well as eastern New Mexico, southeast Colorado and western Kansas....where upwards of 20 inches was dumped in some places....no worry about that here, we are sitting at 55 degrees, warm to say the least for December 21st, the first official day of Winter.  And even though cooler by Christmas morning, it will be sunny and still near 40 for the day.

No game tonight, but after working a two man crew on the 94 foot long court at Van Wert for last nights JV game between Paulding and the host Cougars, I and my legs need a rest.  A Freshman game at Crestview tomorrow, then a Freshman/JV boys double header north at Ottawa Glandorf beginning at 4:30 Friday afternoon,  At least we will work a three man crew for those games, which precede the Varsity game between O-G and Bowling Green.  Then the next three days off for the Christmas weekend, before a handful of games next week.

It is always interesting when I work a game at Van Wert...after being the voice of the Cougars on Cable Channel 7 for 15 or so years, giving the basketball and football officials Hell, now I'm on the other side.  The older fans, who used to tune in for the tape replays of the games back in the Cougars glory years, and watch and listen as I gave the officials the business, now can give me the business, as the tables have turned....pretty entertaining to say the least....and fun.

The Ghosts of Christmas, part 2____

As I mentioned yesterday, the most vivid of my Christmas memories, are from those years I spent in Venice and South Venice, Florida, growing up.....as a teen, back in Ohio, the memories have faded quickly, and I just don't have the recall as I have of the Florida Christmas years.  Although the memories of those early Christmases in the south are pretty clean, little remain, materially, of those days....except a few things....

One thing I have left, along with some old post cards that my Grandma Houseworth collected and saved, is a book on Shells.  Wilda Waldron Houseworth collected Shells by the thousands, along with sharks teeth, from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and the stores that sold the polished and full shells.  For the Christmas of 1955, mom and dad bought her a book on Shells, so she could identify the ones she bought and collected.  Wilda died in 1975 at the ripe old age of 91, having outlived two of her five children, dad, and Forrest.  When the last of the kids, Eva, passed away in 1998, I, as the executor of the remaining items and house in Scott, Ohio, along with my cousin Linda, went through the time taxiing and exhausting task of rooting through the stuff left behind by the three "Packrats", grandma, Aunt Cecil, who died in 1991, and Eva.  It was an adventure to say the least, but that's for a different time....

One thing I did find was that old Shell collecting book, still in excellent shape, from the Christmas of 1955.....attached are a photo from Christmas morning of that year, some 56 years past, where the book can be seen under a chalkboard that was a gift for sister Marty, and a scan of the book, as it looks today, in my modest, but nothing like Grandma's, collection of antiques and small collectibles, of which I kept some, sold some, and split with Linda the others, since we did the work of going through it all.

Hummm....well that's enough for today, but tomorrow I will looking back at some memories of more recent Ghosts of my Christmas pasts....

back later>>>>

Photos-A Christmas as it looks in Florida, although this particular photo I shot a dozen or so years ago at Ormond Beach from a Sunrise at Mom's condo....The Shell Book as it looks today, and sitting below the mass of presents, under the chalk board back on Christmas morning 1955....