
By Sandra Snyder on December 29, 2016
All righty then. No time like the present to start resurrecting the past as previously announced. In the entry that appeared just before this one, I vowed there WOULD be a future for this blog, even if it meant relying more on that old reliable past. No time like Christmastime for memories anyway.
Randomly opened the dusty, dated “portfolio” to the middle and looked for something that said December anyway. This column, by yours truly, appeared in newsprint on Dec. 18, 2004, to be precise. Not sure what I think of it now. It’s OK, I guess. Not great, not particularly terrible. (Be nice if you disagree with the latter and decide to tell me so.)
And, hey, anyone even remember Kaufmann’s? Apparently I liked to eavesdrop there.
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YOU SIMPLY CAN’T BEAT people-watching at the mall during the most wonderful time of the year. With apologies to the innocent victims:
The clock shows nearly 11 p.m. on a Sunday during one of those “night sales” at Kaufmann’s. I’m idling at the jewelry counters when what to my tired eyes should appear but a papa bear, mama bear and amazingly alert baby bear. 
Howdy, strangers, on the grand, if grueling, journey to Christmas.
Mama stops at a necklace turntable and fingers something sparkly. Papa sighs, then complains loudly. “Why do you always have to buy THIS crap?”
OK, so these aren’t exactly our three idyllic bears of yore.
Mama’s defense is swift and sure: “Do YOU have a better idea?”
A silenced papa joins the search, even commenting on a few items. I particularly loved, “If I were a woman, I would wear THIS.” Mama barely gives up a sideways glance, however.
Meanwhile, sweet, patient Baby Bear has his own fun underfoot, imagining perhaps that his opinion is of utmost importance in this whole process.
“Look at this one, and this one, and, oh, this one! Mommy, see!”
Lovable little thing complains not a word when he gets zero attention.
In a flash they are gone, but versions of them turn up everywhere.
Says a wife to her husband at Bed, Bath & Beyond, “I’d still really like to find your father a nice, wool lap robe.”
His face is blank, confused.
“A what?”
He merely shrugs as she leads him, dutiful, away.
Are the holidays the one time of year when the menfolk, hunters and gatherers though they be, lose all desire for acquisition?
With six shopping days left, a frenzied, burdened mind is about to conclude there must be a better way. Strictly online and catalog shoppers often sanctimoniously proclaim they’ve found it. But are they not in on the joke that is shipping and “handling?”
“This gift-giving is a farce anyway,” one close to me recently declared. “What if we just canceled it?”
Well, a recent New York magazine street survey did find a vast majority opposing this concept on principle.
Maybe a little innovation is in order? One mail-order catalog peddles gifts for our brethren in the developing world and reminds us we can give “in honor of” anyone on our shopping list. I briefly considered ordering up a $75 goat for a family of three in an impoverished village, but my scam radar didn’t provide a clear enough read.
Then this pitch arrived: What better gift for one with close ties to the Emerald Isle than an actual piece of Ireland? That’s one square foot, to be precise, for the wee sum of $49.99. Buyireland.com hawks the plots, in County Rosecommon, and tosses in a gold-foiled deed suitable for framing.
Thoughts turned quickly to an old friend who dreamed of someday building a log home. “Even if I have to place one log per year for life,” she joked.
The memory suddenly made this laughable “Buy Ireland” idea seem a little less ludicrous.
It’s conceptual, if you will.
Sometimes we do need to lay our stakes piece by excruciating piece, one brick, log or square foot at a time.
Don’t have everything your heart desires this holiday season, be it that exquisite cashmere hat or, more substantially, the ideal place to hang it?
Remember, neither Rome nor a home was a built in a day. Patience and steadfast faith just might be the two best gifts you can give yourself in the meantime.
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The end. Dirty 30.
Flash forward, Christmastime 2016. Let us pause to reflect, shall we? Kaufmann’s is long gone, of course, having eventually made way for Macy’s, which some say is on life support as well. Who’d have imagined?
That little boy (he of the sweet, sweet, “Mommy, see!”) would, I’m guessing, be about 17ish now. Is he still so sweet? Which road did he take? Did he buy his mama something shiny this year? I hope he doesn’t curse too much.
Christmas shopping is, after all, still alive and well, 14 years later, despite all our grumblings about calling the whole charade off. But I think the deals get better each year anyway, as retailers desperately try to retain the tired, depleted masses. I got a $50 gift somehow marked down to $5 this year. Might have been a register error, but I’m not one to complain. (Ahem.)
Shipping and “handling.” Don’t even get me started. I still rant. Shipping I kind of get, though I never want to pay it. Handling, though, is a cosmic kick in the face, kind of like the utility companies and sewer authorities that charge me a “convenience fee” to pay online. You’re charging me to make your job a bit easier and more convenient, right? Ah, I see now. How about you pay the fee then, and we can still be friends?
Meanwhile, I’ve let too much time go by without making major changes. If I’d started in 2004, I could have owned 13 whole square feet of Ireland by now. What a fool I’ve been. I don’t even yet own one. (And I’ll have to consult my bank to see how many square feet of my own home I actually, in any sense, truly own.)
Had a conversation yesterday, by the way, with an erudite, scholarly and impressive man, against whom I’d NOT like to go up in trivia. He asked a third party if he’d ever used the Plenti card. (Macy’s, Rite-Aid, you know the card, right?)
“Plenti card is great,” scholarly man told the third party. “But the cashier always asks if I want to redeem my points today. And I always say, “Not yet. I’m saving up to buy a car.”
I might have to steal that line. This is the year I’m saving up to buy a house in Ireland.
Or not.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Happy new year, everyone!
~ SJS (AMDG)
“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. (Or woman.) ~ Benjamin Franklin

