While we on the topic of poverty, and the Schuetts in my Sunday Click Around... over the weekend, The Mister was talking about Christmas when he was a kid and how great it was.
All his memories, from "back home in Guyana"
...I relayed a memory I had.
When I was a kid, we were dirt poor.
Gifts were never a big thing at Christmas, and even less so when my mother couldn't afford to put food on the table.
I had a neighbourhood friend named Darlene who had a regular family (mum, dad, sister, brother, dog, fireplace, house), with regular family things at Christmas time.
Her house was full of gifts, Christmas stockings and decorations and things...the kind of things you see on the Afternoon Special on TV.
She got all the things I longed for.
Not only did she have, like, 9 barbies, 4 kens, Barbie Camper, house, and furniture for it...she had tons of toys that she just threw around, and treated like garbage.
I had two Barbies, that I took care of, made clothes for that were hand sewn with needle and thread with pieces of fabric Tetka Ljuba gave me from the factory job she had as a Sewing Machine Operator.
I made my Barbie house and furniture from shoe boxes, bits and pieces I found around the house, and cardboard boxes.
I Painted my houses using cheap water colour palettes Mama bought at Lent's variety store across the street at the corner of Dunn and Queen.
One year, around Christmas time, Darlene borrowed one of my Barbies and refused to give it back when I asked for it.
Sometime between Christmas and New Years that year, I went to her house demanding my Barbie back...she wouldn't give it.
I kicked the shit out of her, and got in big trouble afterward.
I never got that Barbie back, but I'll never forget how greedy Darlene was.
...ahhh, good christmas times....
It just reminds me that the more people have, the greedier they are.
Monday, December 18, 2006
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