Sunday, December 05, 2010... Twilight Twinkles On The Lonely Gray Horizon...

My morning started at 6:04...the usual time for all good puppies to punch their owner and let them know that they've been as patient and sharing with sleep as they intend to. Now it's their time. They want out to pee, sniff, run around trying to keep ahead of the rest of their cohorts, to be the first to sniff yesterday's doodie pile. It's this time, when I have to sit in the dark computer room, waiting for their anxious return to the heated interior of the house that my mind drifts to times of sweet days gone by.....
The date still a bit unclear.....surely in the early sixties, but none the less I am transported back in time, to a starlit evening, where the full moon shined brightly on neighbor kids and I as we sledded across my grandparents back yard on an icy crust of snow more than capable of holding our sleds. We would run and belly slam onto our sleds, rocketing at breakneck speed across the yard, around and between trees and bushes, heading for the bottom fence line of their yard. I remember hearing Christmas music playing softly in the distance, coming from one of the eight houses in our little community of Marysville, Pennsylvania, just outside of State College by about five miles. We continued to pretend we were police cars or robbers chasing one another down and across the yard. I remember the singing of the metal sled runners on the hard frozen snow and the whisking grind of flying ice crystals, as we slalomed to and fro...that ice stinging our faces as we whisked through the clouds of crystals thrown up by someone in front of us. How I remember the glowing twinkle of Christmas Lights being the only artificial lights for miles.....how pretty!
As I recall, it was Christmas Eve, for I can remember some of the conversation at the top of the hill before we would make our next supersonic run. I remember discussing who wanted what...where they saw it first and whether or not it was highly in demand or whether it would be possible to expect it under the tree in the morning. It was a great time in our lives, yet is was agonizing at the same time, for times were hard and there was little money and everything was expensive........ At least that is what we all heard and were told everyday. Still though, we were thankful for whatever we got on Christmas morning. Maybe we were disappointed that something wasn't under the tree, but we got over it. We didn't make our parent's lives and holiday miserable as kids sometimes (usually) do today. Back then we respected our parents....at least within earshot.....otherwise we got a shot to the ear! When I didn't tow the line, I was reprimanded....sometimes brutally by today's standards, but I turned out fine. Talk to my friends or neighbors...see if I am understanding and caring....kind and generous....fair and honest....tender and loving. These are all things that were taught to me and also given to me....Along with the forsythia switch I got for disobeying or throwing a fit about a rule.
Today, there are very few serious rules for kids and they don't really have to follow them if they don't like them. Their parents let the run to do as they please, never knowing where they are or who they spend their time with. I wonder why we have a terrible drug problem and such hatred among young people. These are the very kids that will curse you on the street, or gang up on you if you try to defend yourself against their verbal attacks. These are certainly kids of PROUD parents I'm sure. I'm even surer that when they become young adults, they will be the ones that don't know how to work for a living. They will simply be added to what we experience every time we hire someone to help with a job here on the farm...They come once, then never return or they come when they want to, expecting top wages for a lousy job completed....or almost finished.
I'm sure if there were rules, specific guide lines for what you can do and when, where, how long and when to be home or you face the music as we did, these kids would amount to something and hold full time jobs and provide for their girlfriends, wives or kids. They would not curse their elders or make fun of them in public....but would be considerate and help those around them and become a value to mankind. It's too bad that today's parents are as worthless as their kids and get pissed at me because I make their conscience ache with the truth.
Ahhhhhhh, maybe I'll just start sitting around, lounging in my memories of "the good ol' days".....now that I've actually figured out why they call them that.
And I always just figured those old folks were forgetful and senile...........

Yesterday marked the end of a tried, but not true thing! Yesterday definitively marked the end of craft sales for Vick and me. We vowed to no longer drag a zillion things to the car, from the car to a set-up place, waste a day and return with less cash (usually) than we started with. We have found that at most of these events, if the vendors themselves don't buy from one another, you sell very little.
Yesterday we went on a Looney Ville excursion by attending the Catskill Christmas Bazaar which was held on Main Street. If you've never tried to park on Main Street to unload your merchandise, with 100 other vendors doing the same thing, while the regular town's traffic tries to negotiate Main Street and others wanting to attend the bazaar try to park, all at the same time.... you haven't lived!
Once we got to the empty store where we were to set up, we found that in that 20 x 25 building, they had placed ten vendors with all their merchandise. To say we were stuffed like sardines among one another all day long, would be an understatement, to say the least. It was cold, real cold for most and there was no place to move to stay warm. Everyone was stuck in a little space occupied by them, for any other space was occupied by merchandise or customers. It was not my idea of fun and it actually cured Vick of doing any other events such as this. We have agreed to limit our attendance to the farmer's market in the summer and select few Christmas events.....ever again.
The farmer's market and the Greenville Day celebration was the most prosperous events for the farm and internet shopping for our other craft items is the way to go, so that will be our future direction.
In late spring, when we start the farmer's market again, folks will be pleased to see that we will offer our usual eggs, cheese's, maple syrup and honey, along with our regular cleaned and frozen chicken and a new line of all natural, grass fed frozen beef. We will handle all the usual offerings such as steaks, roasts and hamburger for starters. We'll also take special orders for larger quantities or special cuts. We also plan to continue to search for pure, fresh, all natural products and produce to offer.

Looks like today, we finish framing Vick's three art prints needed to add to the other eight, which we will display in the Bank of Greene County tomorrow. He exhibit was in the Coxsackie bank, here in Greenville for the last month and now they want her to exhibit in the other bank for the month of December. I'm so proud of her achievements and that she has made it to exhibit status with the local arts and humanities organization, "All Arts Matter". It will be viewed as quite an accomplishment by friends and family. Once the pictures are finished and ready to go, we will go to work in the gift shop and finish the insulation tidbits and install the rest of the cement board so Vick and Linda can start on the tile wall. Hopefully.....sometime soon the correct stove pipe will arrive from GNH and we can get the wood stove going out there. Next problem will be getting hold of Middle Field Lumber to see if he is actually ever going to cut our wood for the walls. If not, we need to get cracking to get it cut and installed......
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