If A Tree Falls In The House ...

Other than traveling to Nova Scotia to visit my maternal grandmother .. I have no memory of any family outings together except on Xmas Eve when we would all go down City Line to Clarence Street to visit the old man's aunt ... Hazel Lundy and her son Joe .. Joe would have been in his mid 40s when we were visiting.

Bernard would visit his mother and brother in the afternoon and then come up to our house to exchange gifts and then after that we would head out. This was one of my favorite parts of Xmas ... because Joe was a binge drinker ... and he spoke truth to power ... you did not want to tangle with Joe Lundy ... he had no fear ... and that is the strongest weapon in any physical or verbal battle .. and it being Xmas  .. Joe was sure to be drinking.

Hazel had an artificial Xmas tree and it was Joe's job once a year to put that tree up in the foyer off the main entrance in this very small house. Now ...  the tree had taken a beating over the years ... because when Joe set it up he was usually drinking ... not happy with the season anyway ... and he had very little patience for the supervision of his mother ... it had all the ingredients for disaster and it never failed to materialize .. .

I was always down there anyway .. mooching for a piece of cake or a cookie ... so I always had an early scoop on the tree installation process ... the first year I remember the tree ... Joe had wire running from to two walls and the ceiling to hold it in place ... he had erected the tree .. Hazel started to decorate it and the tree fell over ... she woke him from a drunken stupor .. and cursing and swearing like a longshoreman ... went into the foyer .. grabbed the tree decorations and all and tossed it out the front door onto Clarence Street ... of course Hazel was distraught ... Joe was still cursing the season ... the arsehole that designed the tree ... the son a whore who sold it to Hazel ... and the tropical bastard who thought up the holiday in the first place ... after he calmed down and had a few more drinks .. he pulled the tree back in the house and then wired it up so that that no matter what happened the tree would not fall ... you might decapitate or garrott yourself reaching for present ... but the goddamn son a bitch of a tree was staying up ...

Another year the same thing happened ... this time he got more innovative after bringing the tree back in the house ... he nailed the tree stand to the foyer floor ... cursing and swearing as he hit his thumbs and fingers ... of course the branches were inserted in the main support column in the right order but the tree stayed up and it was decorated ... 

But the best part of all ... and this repeated itself more than once ... Joe would be drunk ... Hazel would have purchased gifts for us but now Joe .. after opening the presents from us and realizing he had not given us anything .. would go upstairs to his bedroom and start to bring down shirts and ties and watches and anything else he could lay his hands on and give that to each one of us ... I remember one Xmas eve where he gave the old man every piece of clothing he owned and the old man had to return everything the next day ... 

To me .. Joe was everything I wasn't ... he could speak his mind ... if he didn't like something you knew it  .. speaking forcefully and cursing and swearing ... but he did it in a way that wasn't demeaning ... in other words his yelling and cursing and swearing was comical ... it was always about something in the family but never about someone .. and outside the family he harboured no fools ... no matter how drunk he was he was always kind to me and I never felt threatened .. and I have seen him in verbal action against those who he took to task .. or heaven forbid .. thought he was an ignorant buffoon ... and he was a physical force of nature ... you did not want to tangle with Joe Lundy sober .. let alone when he had a few ... 

I wish I would have had some serious discussions with Joe about he and my father growing up ... the old man never said anything .. I assume he grew up hard and the less he thought about it the better ... but Joe wasn't the nostalgic type ... if he was reading this blog ... he would call me a snowflake .. and tell me to suck it up .. that's the way it is ...

Every year when Xmas Eve comes around ... I think of Hazel and Joe and that tree ... and how that annual ritual of fighting with the tree became part of my favorite holiday ... and how ... when it was over ... school would start again and the magic of the holiday was gone for another year ... the Xmas holiday period was the only time I thought of our family as normal ... as I used to say in my Xmas cards from time to time ... 'cherish every single moment .. they pass all too soon' ... no shit ... 




Phil - (24 December 2020 - San Patricio de Melaque - 7:45 PM)


Krome Koan - 'Hey Joe .. where you going with that tree in your hands ..?'






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