Christmas Sledgehammer Christmas 2002 Bing, Bang, and then BAM. That is what a "sledgehammer song" does to you. The opening notes hit your ears (bing), the realization of which song this is occurs (bang), and then you are back where you where when this song made a memory for you (bam). My favorite DJ, Dave Morey of KFOG defines a sledgehammer song as "that moment when song and circumstance become so intimately intertwined that one can no longer revisit the song without revisiting the moment, the experience, or the circumstance." It isn't deja vu, it is a Star-Trek-like transporter moment. I have a Christmas sledgehammer. When I hear it, I'm transported back to Norway 1980. I was a Rotary Foreign Exchange student in Tonsberg, Norway. I was living with a wonderful family, I was learning Norwegian quickly, I was making friends, but, hey, I was 18 and without my family for the first time. I was still homesick and scared. In my basement room I had a little radio. If you put the radio in the exact right place, and you held the antenna in a certain direction, Voice of America would weakly come through. It seemed like on certain days it meant a lot to hear an American voice. During December, I heard John Lennon's "Happy Christmas" and I cried. I was just a kid in a strange place at Christmas. The following year, I was in my freshman dorm, East at Williams College. I was looking out the window (supposedly studying) and WCFM played the song. Bing, Bang, and then Bam, I was transported back to Norway feeling sad and lonely. If you remember the lyrics: "So this is Christmas And what have you done Another year over And a new one just begun And so this is Christmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young" The song rather insists that you to reflect on your year, and so I did. From a basement in Norway to the 3rd floor of my dorm. The view was the same: snowy, cold, and dark. The feelings were different: I was so overwhelmed by the academics of Williams, the brightness of the students, the expectations of the professors. I hadn't yet decided whether I could fit in there. I wasn't homesick, but I was still scared. I'm not sure if it was that year or another one that I decide to make it a reflection song. Now, whenever I hear it, I try to think on the year a bit, and then I try to create an entry in my brain for where I am that year. I won't lie and say I can remember all 22 (yikes) years, but I can come up with a memory for about 10 of them. It is just sort of a placeholder of the year for me now. This year, I was driving along with my wonderful husband in California. Although it is technically our second Christmas, it still felt like our first one because we got married December 15th of 2001. This year we were headed off to do a little Christmas shopping for the annual gift grab. We had left our RV and our dog in Florida. We left the RV at the National RV service factory in Lakeland, FL (we learned a neat trick that if you drop the RV off for service you can say you will pick it back up in 10 days and thus have free storage). It was a little tougher to do that with the dog, but fortunately my wonderful cousin, Luanne, and her family agreed to take Pluto in for 10 days. She and her family have a black lab named Casey that Pluto was able to teach many bad habits during his stay. The placeholder memory for this year is a pleasant one - safe, secure, in love, happy. I don’t expect them all to be like this, but hopefully I can pull this one out when I need it during a bad year. Reflecting upon this year is pretty darn easy. Life is good. I hope all of you can find good in the year past, as well as the year ahead. Happy 2003. P.S. As an added bonus, here is another travelogue I started about a recent automotive adventure, but I just never got to finishing it... Listening to NPR's Marketplace, one of our favorite pastimes - we have the radio turned up loud as we are in the middle of nowhere and it isn't coming in well, a story about the Saudi's possible funding one of the terrorists - amazing to each other about the meaning of the information. Hear a funny sound - you hear that? Yeah. What is it? Carefully stand up to look around RV - nothing in the RV, but something sounds funny - are we dragging something underneath the RV? - stick head out window at 55 mph- can't see anything - but hear something awful. Pull over because we can't find an exit anywhere in the near future - oh-oh Amelia's (the Honda in tow) front tire is completely blown out and gone - shreds of rubber. This had to have happened more than 5 minutes past - more like 10-15 probably. We are driving at night - something we rarely do anymore, but we wanted to put some miles on and we had wanted to stop at Congaree Swamp National Monument - so - pulled over in the dark - on an interstate (again, not common, we like our blue and red out-of-the-way highways), trucks zooming by. Luckily, it was the tire away from the freeway. Coincidence - Tiny passed the 10,000 mile marker today. We picked her up with 700 miles. I'm proud to say I drove about 17 of those miles. David drives, I cook. But he chops too - and I navigate. The deal works for us. I suspect I'm getting the better deal, but I hope he feels the same. I told him he is in trouble when the trip ends. Made baby back pork ribs the other day. I also made 2 pumpkin pies. (Note from David: Betsy with the ability to make pumpkin pies is like a drug addict being able to make cocaine. I’m watching her closely.) I'll make a deep dish pumpkin one on Thanksgiving to take to the Bridges Thanksgiving dinner. Postscript: We did a number on the Honda. Killed the wire harness, right front light, turn signal, and rim. Wire harness is getting shipped in from Japan. Everything OK though. By the way, check out Congaree Swamp National Monument. It was a strange place. The "knees" on the cypress trees serve as a snorkel, buffet table, and anchor for the trees. I just wanted to remember that and to think about the great ability to put information into catchy learning moments.