1st Christmas Memory

The 1st memory I have of Christmas is from 1977 or 78. We were still living in the South Haven house and we were getting ready to put up the decorations. I was so excited to help put up the lights. In preparation, I decided to decorate my bedroom door. With a black crayon. Yeah. I remember being so proud. I went and got Mom and Dad to show them. They weren’t impressed. I am certain it was because of my penmanship wasn’t up to par. My L was more than likely backwards. I did that a lot.

Mom & Dad enjoyed taking pictures of us being bad. Well, not necessarily of being bad, but of us right before the eminent punishment was going to be doled out for whatever act we were in the midst of doing. “Chuck, get the camera!” made it obvious that what we were doing was a “no-no” and would soon have another picture being snapped of the punishment, usually with the tears flowing. The camera was not always our friend.

That Christmas, instead of helping put up the Christmas lights, I spent that time scrubbing my bedroom door. For the record, it is much easier to stand on a chair to write your name in crayon than it is to stand on a chair and scrub it off.

Probably got spanked after this one too...