“New Years, 2017 Style”

By

Gerry Niskern

I heard an amazing comment the other day.  A member of my fanily who has to hop a plane frequently, tells me they have noticed a change in manners of fellow passengers. Even though everyone has to arrive two hours before their flight time and submit to random security checks of their full luggage, “People are overall more considerate.”

I know this is hard to believe…airline passengers becoming more courteous to fellow travelers. They went on to say, “ I actually saw a Generation X fellow offer to lift an older woman’s carry-on to the over head rack before stashing his own bag.”

Do you realize this trend could have a domino effect?

Imagine, for instance, if another passenger, after observing this display of courtesy, decides not to take his customary nap by laying his seat back full throttle into the lap of the passenger behind him. That passenger, in turn, is so grateful that he isn’t paralyzed from being pinned in his seat for the entire flight  that he deplanes in great spirits. While pulling out of the airport area, he decides to let another driver out into traffic ahead of him And what if that fellow gave him one of those curtsey “thank you” waves drivers used to give. Yet another driver who observed that scene might be inspired to let cars metered on the freeway actually get on, instead of speeding up so they can’t.

This manner thing might be carried to the extreme. Men might start opening doors for women again, and women might say a gracious “thank you” for the thoughtful gesture. Seeing this phenomenon, boys and girls might stand back and let their mother go first through the shopping center entrance.

Who knows where all this civility could lead?  Dinner out with children might return to being a treat. Caps could be removed while eating.  Picture this. Kids actually sitting at the table so the waiters carrying heavy trays didn’t have to dodge the “happy wanderers.” Of course, Mom and Dad might have to put down their cell phones to encourage this peaceful scene.

And speaking of cell phones, everyone could leave their cell phones in their pockets when having a social conversation at a family gathering. Perhaps no one ever told them that challenging every remark with an immediate “double-check” on a cell phone is not good manners. It is rude and hopefully soon a new rule  book for everyone is published on cell phone manners!

You know, come to think of it, with a good meal under their belts, I’ll bet the kids could sit down and write those thank you notes to aunts, uncles and grandparents for the great Christmas gifts they sent. Trust me, the child benefits more from this exercise than the gift givers.

In this New Year, we could all start with our every day encounters with everyone.  Wait your turn patiently at the butcher, bakery or deli counter. And don’t park in the handicapped spaces; it doesn’t matter if you’ll only be a couple of minutes.

The passing on of norms and manners in general have slowed down in this country.   I’ll admit some formal manners are too old-fashioned for today’s world. If the old rules are too cumbersome, streamline them to work in our world today. In the meantime, the consideration for the feeling and rights of others will always be appropriate.

It has been said that manners are the glue of society; they are what hold civilization together. Let’s mix up a whole new batch of that glue.  If we want to be the best country in the world, we have to start practicing our civility within our own family, our neighborhood and in our community.

What do you think? Could 2017 go down in history, as the year good manners for all ages became fashionable again?

“What’s Christmas without music?”

By

Gerry Niskern

What would the Christmas season be without music? The majestic choirs singing Ava Maria and the beautiful music of the Nutcracker performed during the holidays are a special gift to all of us every year.

Actually, my earliest memory of Christmas music was not the traditional songs of the season. I remember going to my Grandma’s house every year, on January 7^th, the Catholic Orthodox Christmas.  I walked between my mom and dad over crunchy snow that smelled of cinders.  Although Santa visited our house on the 25^th, I couldn’t wait to celebrate “Grandma’s Christmas” with my aunts, uncles and cousins.  Polka music spilled through the kitchen door from my Uncle Paul’s accordion. After dinner we danced the night away as the old frame house shook with pounding feet.

We sang “Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Away in a Manger and O Little Town of Bethlehem” in the country church I attended as a child back East. The peaceful strains of “Silent Night” carried over the snowy hills at our Christmas Eve service.

After we moved to Phoenix, the same melody came back to my Girl Scout troop on a chilly December morning in l943, during WWII.

As our troop cooked our pancakes over an open fire in Papago Park, we sang Christmas carols. Just as we finished Silent Night, we heard the same melody, a German carol “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht”……echoing back to us by strong male voices. The chorus was coming from Hole in the Rock where some German POWs and their guards were resting after working in the park. We listened in awe. I think that’s when we  realized how small the world really is.

As soon as the war was over and gasoline was available again our family made a long awaited journey back to West Virginia for Christmas.  “How’d you like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island” played often as I took spins around the skating rink with my teenage cousins. On the long car trip back home to Arizona we listened  to “ Frosty the Snowman” and “The Old Lamplighter” over and over again on the car radio.  It was 4 degrees above zero as my Dad maneuvered the old Plymouth over icy roads lined with overturned vehicles lying in snow banks all the way across Texas.

“Jingle Bells” is one of the first songs our own kids learned. Then when the holidays got a little more hectic we turned to, “Santa Claus is coming to town…..he knows if you’ve been bad or good”. Those words used to scare me as a child but they didn’t faze my kids.

Then there were the years the kids inundated us with “All I want to Christmas is My Two Front Teeth, Grandma go Run Over by a Reindeer, and “I’m Getting Nuttin’ for Christmas”.

One song that evolved into books, movies and more was “Rudolph the Red-nosed Raindeer”. It caught everyone’s fancy, especially our grandkids. Our home on the mountain looks

over the city lights. When the red light on our oven reflected back on the living room window out

into the sky, they were sure they were seeing Rudolph. I didn’t have the heart to tell them otherwise.

Men who have served in every war since l942 remember listening to Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas” and dreaming of being reunited with their family soon.

I don’t know what Christmas song our men and women stationed in the Middle East like best, but according to the Federal Chaplaincy Ministries “I’ll be home for Christmas” is heard over and over again.

Christmas Trees Galore

By

Gerry Niskern

All types of trees have come and gone over the years. How many do you remember?

Years ago,  enterprising tree dealers started flocking trees white for a little extra charge. Everyone had to have one of the “snow” covered beauties. I have a friend from the Philippines who remembers as a child trying to create a similar tree. They found a large branch, striped it, painted it white and glued little globs of cotton all over the “snowy” branches.

How about the trees that “snowed”? Snowflakes blew out the top of the tree and settled down on the branches. The extra flakes fell into a large cone at the bottom and were shot up inside the trunk  and out at the top, to “snow” again.

Then came the aluminum “put together” trees. They couldn’t take lights so they came with a revolving spot light. One was sent to a couple I know who were stationed in Saudia Arabia. When they invited an Arabian family to share their Christmas dinner, their little boys kept removing the shiny tree branches to play sword fighting.

Another couple told me of being stationed overseas and scuba diving often. One day they spotted a beautiful chunk of coral shaped like a Christmas tree. They managed to get it up and take it home where they soaked and cleaned it. They strung lights on it for Christmas. It went with them wherever they were transferred and the tree always remained part of their Christmas.

One friend who grew up here tells me that they couldn’t afford a tree, but the kids in the family always found a tumble weed to bring home and decorate with popcorn and homemade paper ornaments for their Christmas.

Some lucky longtime residents will remember taking their children to see the huge yuletide tree in downtown Phoenix in the middle of the intersection of Central and Washington Street. The magnificent fir stood atop a large box platform and the trolleys that traveled Washington passed by on either side.

Of course, the trees you will remember best were the ones that when you woke up on Christmas morning and smelled pine in the chilly air, and  you knew.  You raced barefooted across the cold floor and there it stood in glorious splendor complete with twinkling lights, shiny ornaments and tons of icicles.

Sure enough, Santa had come down your chimney with presents and……a Christmas tree.