MY RED CHRISTMAS SHIRT:
Some ten or fifteen years in the distant past my wife, Yvette, sewed a red shirt as a Christmas gift for me. It's a lovely shirt, made of some material that is soft, warm, and cosy. Ideal for sitting in front of a fire and drinking a beer; something I am doing right now as I am typing this message. Drinking beer, that is. I have a good doctor. She says I can drink all the beer I would like to. I usually drink only one but it's nice to know I can drink another. It's like a nice cool bubbly feeling. Getting back to the red shirt, we bring it out every year for Christmas week, then it is washed and put away until next year. There is something unique about this shirt, though. The first time I tried to button the shirt, I couldn't. Then I discovered that the buttonholes were on the wrong side. Yvette was so accustomed to making her own garments, she automatically put the buttonholes for my shirt on the wrong side.
Incidentally, do you know why buttonholes for women and men are different? In the olden days, women had maids who dressed them so the buttons were placed for someone who is facing you to button easily. There are some other explanations but this one seems to be the most acceptable.
Back to the red shirt. This morning, while my 96-year old nimble fingers were buttoning the shirt, I counted them. There are seven. This is interesting, I thought. December 7 was my birthday and this birthday shirt has seven buttons. It actually has eight counting the top button which I do not use anymore. I don't wear ties so it is just left open. I pondered this wondrous event for a few seconds and decided I would go back and review the past and select the seven most memorable events in my life. I thought about it off and on most of the day and whittled it down to the following seven in the order they occurred.
1. Graduating from knickers to full-length trousers. I was now grown-up.
2. My first solo flight in the '09. The exhilaration of being alone in the skies was indescribable.
3. Enlisting in the military. America's entry into World War II was imminent and I wanted a front row
seat in the branch of my choice.
4. Stepping off the ramp of an LCI and standing on Omaha Beach, France amidst the carnage. It must
have been Hell incarnate on D-Day.
5. Getting fired from my job at Food Fair Stores. I was free from the shackles of working for someone. It also opened up a whole new vista for fun and adventure. Now I had the time and the resources to
do whatever I wanted to. It was like grabbing the brass ring on life's merry-go-round.
6. Getting married to Yvette. It opened up a whole new world of fun and responsibility; ending 60 years
of bachelorhood. It also brought me to Tennessee.
7. Moving to Tennessee. In Nomad News No.33 I chronicled a series of events, starting in 1940, that
led me to Crossville in 1988. As I have written before, I believe that I have been blessed with a
Sheltering Angel since birth; not one that controls me, but one that guides and protects me. This
angel has revealed the reason I am in Crossville; the purpose is yet to be revealed.
8. The empty buttonhole.When the mystery of my purpose for being in Tennessee is revealed, it will be
printed here.
That's the tale of my red Christmas shirt. (Copyright 2014-Andrew M. Dolan)
P.S.: If anyone would like to see other issues of Nomad News, go to: mountainchat.blogspot.com
P.S: I don't know why the machine started printing half lines when I listed the seven events in my life. If anyone knows, I would appreciate hearing from you. (Copyright 204-Andrew M. Dolan)
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