ASHEVILLE CHRISTMAS
On Saturday I photographed the Marshall Christmas Parade. I‘ve only been back from Greece for two weeks and until Saturday it had barely dawned on me that Christmas is here. Christmas was my wife Kathe‘s favorite time of the year. For a month she prepared, buying and wrapping presents, decorating the tree and the living room. I remember Christmas as her mother celebrated it in Winsen, Germany, shortly after I met Kathe. I had only been in Kathe‘s presence for five days before that wonderful Christmas, shortly before I boarded a troop ship back to the United States. Because I wanted to stay in touch I invited Kathe, beside the Christmas tree, to come to America. She took me up on it and went through an arduous American consulate interrogation which gave her a green card, an American work permit. She had a one way ship ticket and intended to stay. Without knowing it I had invited her to marry me and she, without knowing it, had said “yes”.
On Christmas Eve, Heilige Abend, the living room in Winsen was closed off as Kathe‘s mother decorated the room and the tree which was covered with lighted candles and hanging red apples. Finally the family was allowed in. Each person got a present and each person got a book. With the candles flickering it was magic. Kathe‘s Christmases over the years in our house were same magic repeated.
But coming back from Greece, and without Kathe here, Christmas has almost passed me by. True, I saw the Christmas rush in Athens and the decorations in Syntagma Square. This Saturday after driving back from Marshall I parked in town, intending to go visit the Art Museum, but almost immediately I ran into Jude Stuecker, an old friend, and her daughter, and walked with them to the Grove Arcade, where the two daughters, Sylvia and Lucy, sat at a table and made Christmas ornaments and Jude and I looked at the Christmas decorations in the Grove Arcade, an indoor 1920‘s shopping arcade. So now I know it is Christmas. I even spent the day today helping Susie make a Christmas present, the presentation of a gift from Kathe to her granddaughter. And finally I am being warmed by the Christmas spirit.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 