IT WAS A TRADITION BORN FROM PROCRASTINATING TEENAGERS.
My brother and I would wrap the Christmas presents the night of December 24th. The gift was still warm from whatever store it was sitting in hours ago.
I was thinking about that tradition yesterday as I was going to the fifth store, in two days, to find what was supposed to be a simple gift. Of course I got the " …you know what I really need" notification last week. Found the elusive item one hour before a store was closing on Christmas Eve.
When I was on the job, I would buy presents and leave them in the trunk of the car. It was the only secure place I had. Spent many Christmas Eve nights wrapping presents in the fire station. Adhering to the teenage roots of this practice, my brother's present was wrapped in a brown paper grocery bag. Some traditions endure!
THE NIGHT OF THE FORGOTTEN GIFT
I never used a list, would inventory the trunk to see what was missing before starting another shopping spree. It was 11 pm one Christmas Eve in the 1980s when I realized that I never got my brother a present. While I could give an puffed up grocery bag with an "IOU" note, I had done that before. There was nothing to "re-gift" and no junk at the fire station I could give as a gag.
I do not remember the name of the retail chain that was open 24 hours a day, including Christmas. Today it would be Walgreens. I do remember that I was the only customer in the store at 8:45 am. I have no idea what I bought that morning, something between a joke gift and thoughtful present.
New Orleans
Normally we are out of the station by 6:30 am but, following a firehouse tradition, I stayed late so my relief could celebrate Christmas morning with his children.
I hope that it is slow and boring at the fire station. Today should be filled with friendship, laughter and food.
Mike "FossilMedic" Ward
Also on FireGeezer…
- “.. enough room to set a bag of groceries in it” – June 3, 2011
Recent Comments