A few photos of Christmases past. The left one is 1967 and the right 1966. The tree was always magical to me, even though it took up a chunk of the living room. I loved the soft glow of lights at night and the sparkling metal tinsel. I remember Thom or Lou loved to throw the tinsel on and I liked it to be placed on so it fell straight down and glittered. I loved putting on each ornament with memories of where it came from.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

The first snowfall in Flat Rock used to be around the evening of the first high school basketball game; then for 2-3 weeks, we might not see any more. We would pray for snow on Christmas, but not too much. It was now a few days after Christmas, 1970 something. The family was gathered at Walnut Street for a traditional Christmas gathering, when someone commented that it was snowing. I grabbed my camera and went out in front, staying on the driveway, because snow was already accumulating on the grass. Because of the overcast skies, I couldn't get enough depth-of-field to focus on the house as well as the large snowflakes gently falling. The result was a poor photograph and a great memory.

I cannot that I have all the facts right. Our brains have a way of re-writing our little "memory movies", poetic license, I guess. But this one picture encapsules all the gatherings, like the sound of tearing paper and laughter, the smell of a hundred things to eat, and the taste of Mom's eggnog (with or without rum).

Irving Berlin, a Jew, wrote "White Christmas" because of his memories of his childhood best friend, a Catholic neighbor boy who always invited Irving over to share their Christmas. Irving had moved from New York to Los Angeles as his songwriting career had blossomed.

But Jimmie Van Heusen's lyrics to another song of the season say: "It's not the things you do at Christmas time, but the Christmas things you do all year long."

I likewise believe that it wasn't the snow gathering outstide on the cold ground, but the family gathering inside of warm 29566 Walnut St. that made it Christmas.

To all the descendants of Dick and Billy Calkins. . .Merry Christmas!

Dad-ism #4: Rustoleum, for serious outdoor painting

As I thought about this Dad-ism, I suppose it should have been the very first one. I think Dad's policy was this: if a piece of metal was to be outside, and it was not naturally immune to heavy corrosion (e.g. copper, aluminum or stainless steel), it would be painted with Rustoleum. That even went for some indoor things too like the sump pump pipe and the sewer clean-out pipe that came up out of the basement floor by the clothes chute. I picked the picture on the left because I think Dad used more silver metallic Rustoleum than any other color. I would like to say I took this picture of a can from Dad's collection of Rustoleum paints, but I have to confess, this is my own can of paint! Yes, that's right, this is one Dad-ism I have definitely carried the torch on.

You will probably have to click on the pictures to see my arrows that point to what I call "Rustoleum targets". In the picture on the far left, there is a red arrow pointing to a column that was eventually covered with aluminum, but was originally painted with Rustoleum. The arrow at the bottom of that same picture is pointing to the manhole cover, not shown. (Come to think of it, that is the only thing at the house I did not take a picture of!) Notice in these pictures that many of the things that were painted need painting again. But if you think about it, they probably were painted almost 20 years ago!

OK, in this next picture, can you spot the potential Rustoleum target? It is the stove hood vent cover, exactly in the middle of the picture. The really cool thing about Rustoleum was that it could be applied directly over existing rust as long as it was not loose rust. (Can you sense how much I like the stuff, too?)




And in this final picture, can you spot the Rustoleum targets? For me it was obvious: the two bird feeder poles in front of the bay window. The outer front door, although it looks like it was painted with metallic silver Rustoleum was actually just an aluminum door. The lower panel was oxidized and pitted so badly that Dad eventually painted it the solid color shown. But who really knows, maybe the paint he used on the door was indeed Rustoleum.

Windows forty-something

The original windows shown here to the left of the skinny kid with the tom cat tie, had removable wood storm windows which could be propped open to allow a little air in. Three holes were drilled in the bottom to relieve moisture build-up, but bugs always built nests in there. To cool the house in summer, we had to remove the storm windows and put up screens, which were stored in the basement. I didn't take Dad long to have aluminum combo storm/screen windows installed.

The basement windows could be opened from the basement by releasing a latch and pulling the top of the window toward you. Because the basement was built too deep, you had to find something to stand on. At one time I developed a pole with a hook on it to open them from the floor. Guess that was Thom-ism #1. One of my jobs one summer was to paint metal frame which had a tendency to rust, in aluminum Rust-Oleum, of course. Another Dad-ism (which number are we on?) was making screened frames for the basement windows which were wedged into place with insulation strips.

I enjoyed the fact that house had windows facing in all directions. I have three distinct widow memories. During the upstairs renovation, a hole had been cut in the north peak to install a window. Looking out at that tremendous view, I was, for the only time in my life, jealous of Grandma and Grampa Calkins. Memory #2 was running to the small bedroom in the dormer after the old air raid siren had sounded that 4th of July reunion evening, and seeing the funnel cloud heading right for our house from about a mile and a half away.

Memory #3: I didn't think of Dad as an artist. When he created artwork, I though he was a wizard. But the most wonderful wizardry was the cellophane and tape "stained glass" nativity scene he created for the middle kitchen window. That was my favorite window of all.