Remember When

Quote: billryan

You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
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Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: billryan

You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
link to original post

Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.
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You've never experienced the joy of giving, but it is never too late. All you have to do is believe.

Quote: billryan

Quote: AZDuffman

Remember when you were a kid and right around now you would be counting the hours until Christmas? In Catholic school you usually started counting days when Advent started, which could be as early as the last Sunday in November. Which was kind of a fun thing since the count started earlier. By the last week you counted hours. Then you got to Christmas Eve Eve, which later became Festivus. That was the big thing as school might only have been a half day and you didn't do much of anything.

Then you get old and it is not a big deal at all. That week after Christmas can be nothing special to just useless killing time depending on where you work and how your business works.
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You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
link to original post

I do some of that but it will never be the same. I worked the last two Christmas days and it really felt like nothing to do so. Calendar magic gives me Christmas Eve and day off this year. I really don’t care as I he ave nowhere to go until later in he day. I don’t decorate at all. I will walk my small town and feel the apocalypse feel you get with everything closed. I do like that feel. It’s like living a movie empty street expecting some black guy to pull me off the street and ask me if I’m crazy walking out there with zombies everywhere blah blah. Then I’ll sit in my hot tub on Christmas Day to know I did. Then kill time.

Counting the hours like when I was a kid? I write the date at work and wonder where the year went.

Side note: Remember when you could not get near your local mall today the Saturday before Christmas? This was the busiest shopping day of the year all the last minute buys. You don’t see that now like in the late 80s.

In the late 1970s, my fraternity would be hired to help with traffic and security on Black Friday and the Saturday before Christmas. Traffic at the mall was overwhelming and would sometimes back up on the parkway exits. It was a horrible job, but it was two shifts a year.

Quote: billryan

In the late 1970s, my fraternity would be hired to help with traffic and security on Black Friday and the Saturday before Christmas. Traffic at the mall was overwhelming and would sometimes back up on the parkway exits. It was a horrible job, but it was two shifts a year.
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My local mall it could take you an hour to circle the place for all the traffic. I am sure it was not the only one. That mall is now being torn down. When I was a kid the old people would say how busy downtown was before the mall. Now I tell the kids how busy that mall was. It was a ghost town it’s last 5 Christmases or do.

Quote: AZDuffman

Quote: billryan

In the late 1970s, my fraternity would be hired to help with traffic and security on Black Friday and the Saturday before Christmas. Traffic at the mall was overwhelming and would sometimes back up on the parkway exits. It was a horrible job, but it was two shifts a year.
link to original post

My local mall it could take you an hour to circle the place for all the traffic. I am sure it was not the only one. That mall is now being torn down. When I was a kid the old people would say how busy downtown was before the mall. Now I tell the kids how busy that mall was. It was a ghost town it’s last 5 Christmases or do.
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I don't remember the last time I went to a mall. I I had to guess I may have been to a mall twice in the last 15 years.

Quote: billryan

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: billryan

You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
link to original post

Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.
link to original post

You've never experienced the joy of giving, but it is never too late. All you have to do is believe.
link to original post

Sure I have, who hasn't. And the so-called Joy of giving diminishes as time goes on, just like everything does. You seem to have all these things in your life that you say bring you Joy yet you are one of the most joyless people I've ever seen. You might have the record on the Forum for being suspended for personal insults and trolling. You even got suspended for 6 months not that long ago. Since then it's obvious you are trying to present yourself in a different way, but it ain't working for me. I don't like you, I'll never like you no matter how you try and paint yourself.

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: billryan

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: billryan

You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
link to original post

Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.
link to original post

You've never experienced the joy of giving, but it is never too late. All you have to do is believe.
link to original post

Sure I have, who hasn't. And the so-called Joy of giving diminishes as time goes on, just like everything does. You seem to have all these things in your life that you say bring you Joy yet you are one of the most joyless people I've ever seen. You might have the record on the Forum for being suspended for personal insults and trolling. You even got suspended for 6 months not that long ago. Since then it's obvious you are trying to present yourself in a different way, but it ain't working for me. I don't like you, I'll never like you no matter how you try and paint yourself.
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The Spirit of Christmas runs deep in this one.

Quote: DRich

Quote: AZDuffman

Quote: billryan

In the late 1970s, my fraternity would be hired to help with traffic and security on Black Friday and the Saturday before Christmas. Traffic at the mall was overwhelming and would sometimes back up on the parkway exits. It was a horrible job, but it was two shifts a year.
link to original post

My local mall it could take you an hour to circle the place for all the traffic. I am sure it was not the only one. That mall is now being torn down. When I was a kid the old people would say how busy downtown was before the mall. Now I tell the kids how busy that mall was. It was a ghost town it’s last 5 Christmases or do.
link to original post

I don't remember the last time I went to a mall. I I had to guess I may have been to a mall twice in the last 15 years.
link to original post

I saw a piece recently said in the 80s the average person was at a mall once a week now it is twice a year. Sounds about right. I go if I am needing glasses sometimes. I do use one local mall for a meet and pickup place when I am carpooling on gigs so if early I’ll cruise the place get some exercise. Other than that little reason to go head days. I’m n the 80s there was as just more there that you bought.

Quote: AZDuffman

Quote: DRich

Quote: AZDuffman

Quote: billryan

In the late 1970s, my fraternity would be hired to help with traffic and security on Black Friday and the Saturday before Christmas. Traffic at the mall was overwhelming and would sometimes back up on the parkway exits. It was a horrible job, but it was two shifts a year.
link to original post

My local mall it could take you an hour to circle the place for all the traffic. I am sure it was not the only one. That mall is now being torn down. When I was a kid the old people would say how busy downtown was before the mall. Now I tell the kids how busy that mall was. It was a ghost town it’s last 5 Christmases or do.
link to original post

I don't remember the last time I went to a mall. I I had to guess I may have been to a mall twice in the last 15 years.
link to original post

I saw a piece recently said in the 80s the average person was at a mall once a week now it is twice a year. Sounds about right. I go if I am needing glasses sometimes. I do use one local mall for a meet and pickup place when I am carpooling on gigs so if early I’ll cruise the place get some exercise. Other than that little reason to go head days. I’m n the 80s there was as just more there that you bought.
link to original post

The last time I went to a mall was in the 90s. To give you an idea of what our big local mall is like now, they issued a statement that there is a 3:00 p.m. curfew on any teenager under 18 years old. Reason being malls are now hangouts for small time teenage criminals and they are especially rampant at Christmas time. Their favorite thing to do is 8 or 10 of them go into to a store and grab whatever they can and run away. I won't even tell you who they are, I'll give you three guesses. It's the spirit of Christmas on display for all to see.

Quote: billryan

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: billryan

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: billryan

You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
link to original post

Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.
link to original post

You've never experienced the joy of giving, but it is never too late. All you have to do is believe.
link to original post

Sure I have, who hasn't. And the so-called Joy of giving diminishes as time goes on, just like everything does. You seem to have all these things in your life that you say bring you Joy yet you are one of the most joyless people I've ever seen. You might have the record on the Forum for being suspended for personal insults and trolling. You even got suspended for 6 months not that long ago. Since then it's obvious you are trying to present yourself in a different way, but it ain't working for me. I don't like you, I'll never like you no matter how you try and paint yourself.
link to original post

The Spirit of Christmas runs deep in this one.
link to original post

Go back and read some of your own posts that you were suspended for over the last few years and then come and talk to us about Christmas spirit. Why, it's almost like you have two different personalities. I wonder which one is real.

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: billryan

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: billryan

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: billryan

You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
link to original post

Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.
link to original post

You've never experienced the joy of giving, but it is never too late. All you have to do is believe.
link to original post

Sure I have, who hasn't. And the so-called Joy of giving diminishes as time goes on, just like everything does. You seem to have all these things in your life that you say bring you Joy yet you are one of the most joyless people I've ever seen. You might have the record on the Forum for being suspended for personal insults and trolling. You even got suspended for 6 months not that long ago. Since then it's obvious you are trying to present yourself in a different way, but it ain't working for me. I don't like you, I'll never like you no matter how you try and paint yourself.
link to original post

The Spirit of Christmas runs deep in this one.
link to original post

Go back and read some of your own posts that you were suspended for over the last few years and then come and talk to us about Christmas spirit. Why, it's almost like you have two different personalities. I wonder which one is real.
link to original post

Stranger things have happened on the Road to Damascus. I'm a very different person than I was five or ten years ago, and vastly different than twenty five years ago. Back then, my destination was of utmost import. Now the Journey is everything.
Satori.