Old Enough to Buy My Own Candy

  1. Why did they not have caramel apples coated in M&Ms and/or cookie crumbs and/or coconut when I was a kid? Is this a new innovation in candy, or a cultural problem with the Midwest, or what?
  2. No one at Francis’s is answering the question that obviously follows up a question like this:

    Have I also mentioned that, cussing aside, I’ve always been sentimental about yuletide, even when I was really too young to actually be sentimental about anything?

    So I’ll bring it up here. Just how old is old enough to actually be sentimental?

  3. The Posada was lovely; the incongruities of candlelight on busy stretches of Colorado Blvd. were more than balanced out by the gut-wrenching combination of Architecture! Music! Death! at the entrance to several churches. Thanks to all who donated; the organizers weren’t completely on the internet ball and didn’t send any notices of internet donations until Thursday evening-ish, but I know of at least $50 – way more than I was expecting! Anyone who gave and would like a cute thank-you postcard, send me your address.
  4. I bought myself an album of Christmas music the other day. It claims to be chock full of authentic-esque Medieval and Renaissance yuletide hymns, and the cover features a guy in a doublet and sunglasses. Early music with the fashion sensibilities of a cheesy 80s movie! What’s not to like about that, particularly when it’s in the $1.99 bin?

    It doesn’t quite live up to either the pre-Baroque or the 2020s, but at least the generic arrangements are of Gloucestershire Wassail rather than Here We Come A-Wassailing.

  5. Happy Hanukkah, to those of you who don’t remember; also to those of us who only remembered because it’s on our office calendar, along with the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party and Eddie Vedder’s birthday.

Comments

  1. francis s. wrote:

    I’m ashamed that I didn’t answer.
    I don’t think one can put an exact date on when it is possible to be sentimental about something. Except that five is probably too young: You are too busy experiencing things for the first time still to feel nostalgia for the past.
    What do you think?

  2. yami wrote:

    Oh, don’t be ashamed, Francis! It was an old post by the time I got there.
    I’m not sure nostalgia is a prerequisite for sentimentality, though it surely helps. I’m thinking of the kind of sentimentality required by the latest round of Hallmark commercials (person sees a piece of kitsch, gets all teary-eyed thinking about how someone will react to an unexpected gift, and walks out of the store with like a billion bags of godawful crap and a goofy grin) – a kind of disproportionate emotional investment in objects and ritual. Which seems like the sort of thing one divests oneself of as a teenager, only so it can eventually creep back into your adult life.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*

*