A Trip Down Memory Lane..........by Vic Davey

 

                                                     

Reminiscences.  🌲.  🎁

Well, once again the Christmas Holiday Festive season is hurtling towards us like an out of control train.  Difficult to believe when we are still enjoying the Sunshine and the temperatures. I see the Christmas lights going up in the village and probably in the towns too, ready for the switch on around the 1st of December, while TV ads have been running on the UK stations for a few weeks now. 

At this time of year, my thoughts inevitably return to my childhood. Christmas was a special, magical time with the excitement building in the weeks leading up to The Day itself. My Mum and my Aunt would take me up to London to Gamages Department Store to see Father Christmas. For some reason I believed he was the Real Santa, just there taking orders. 

Before the actual meeting there was always a ride of some kind. I remember a train carriage which never actually moved except to shake a little, while scenery went by the windows. Then came the meeting with Santa, a photo taken and a gift received. It was magic to a child.....until the time when I was the only one going in to see him, walked into the Exit by mistake, only to confront Santa with his feet up, beard pulled down and reading a newspaper through horn-rimmed glasses! It was never quite the same after that. 

 At the Primary school, we eagerly set about making paper chains to decorate the classroom and I seem to remember being persuaded to take part in a Christmas Nativity Play. I was to play Joseph, not exactly type casting I admit. For some reason, I was under the impression it was just going to be a kind of Tableau thing where the cast just dressed up and stood around The Manger while Carols were sung.  That was, until I was handed a script and had lots of lines to learn.....it was a real play! 

Even now, I can recall standing on the stage, dressed in some kind of Kaftan which was probably someone's dressing gown, with a tea-towel on my head looking out into the audience and spotting Mum and Dad sitting a few rows back from the front. 

Then when I was at Secondary School, my acting prowess, such as it was, must have preceded me as I was somehow coerced into doing another Christmas play, but very different to the traditional Nativity. It was set in Monte Casino during WWII. I played a British soldier accompanied by two others who burst into a house on Christmas Eve to shelter during heavy fighting. The only inhabitants were an Italian man and a tiny baby. (I'm guessing they could not get a girl to act the part of the mother). The set was really well thought out assisted by the availability of plenty of material from the building site of a new school building going up on what was the sports field.

We, the main cast, had army uniforms, helmets and real rifles of the period. To this day, I don't know where they came from.

 The Woodwork Master had made some boxes, nailed them to a plank which was suspended over the stage, and filled them with building rubble,  while another Master had provided a recorded soundtrack of the sounds of battle, gunfire, explosions, upon which the plank was upended and we were covered in rubble, dust and dirt, as though the roof had caved in on us. 

What hadn't been allowed for was that the dust would not be contained to the stage and the first two rows of the audience were covered too!

Anyway, back to the plot. We were trapped in the house overnight and when the man had got over the shock of being invaded and we were not going to harm him, we shared our food with him, just simple food from our meagre rations, but enough.  

Next morning the fighting had subsided and we decided to make a run for it. Being grateful to the man for putting up with us and it also being Christmas day, we each gave him something. One was a harmonica I seem to remember, another was some chocolate bars, but for the life of me I can't recall what my gift was. They were meant to represent the gifts given by The Three Kings, so, an alternative Nativity. 

It was cleverly written, superbly acted, worth a Tony award at least! 

Makes you think though, doesn't it,  with what is happening in Israel right now.?.....not too much goodwill to all men there, but, of course, neither side follows the Christian tradition.

Anyway, whatever tradition you choose to follow or whatever Christmas traditions you might have, ENJOY.....🎅