I will soon be taking my usual shopping trip to the local lutefisk dealer to get my annual supply. I am looking forward to devouring a healthy meal or two of lutefisk, but strangely it just doesn’t seem to appeal to a lot of the folks I know. As for myself, I can’t wait to load my plate with this magical fish and share the feast with this year’s downsized (thanks to COVID) version of our family. It seems like each year I am able to convert another naysayer into the select group of us who enjoy this tasty morsel. It will be a harder sell this year with fewer people to work with and the ones who will be there have already taken a firm stand on the issue.
I have written in past years of how, as a youth, I was introduced into the circle of fish eaters by my dad and my uncles, Ben and Oliver. The first year that I mustered up enough courage to taste the fish, they told me how to prepare my lefse with potatoes and fish with plenty of butter and salt & pepper. My dad always rolled up his sleeves when eating fish, because he said a true fish eater would have butter running down his arm when he held the rolled up delicacy to his mouth for the initial bite.
The first time I tasted “the fish,” it was like a coming-of-age thing. As I hoisted the object that I had just prepared to my mouth, everyone else stopped eating; at that moment I could feel that all eyes were upon me. There was no backing out now, so I had to follow through no matter how it smelled. All the while I tried blocking out the vision of the fish as it lay jiggling in the bowl before I had placed it on the lefse. After that first bite, my Uncle Ben looked at me with that twinkle that he always had in his eyes and nodded his approval. Uncle Oliver burst out in that infectious laugh of his, which I took as his stamp of approval.
There I was sitting at the “big table” with butter dripping off my chin, eating fish with the grown-ups! In the first couple years that followed, I would have to psych myself up to enjoy this tasty delicacy, but I soon looked forward to that time of year when fish ruled the dinner table. Now, even as I am writing this, my mouth is beginning to water in anticipation of the glorious meal that lies ahead.
When I was a kid, the days leading up to Christmas were always special, and I have no idea how many times I would check under the tree to see if any more gifts had appeared with my name on them. When it comes to Christmas, I know that the kids today are no different than we were.
One of the best things about this time of year is that I still get that same good feeling inside, but a lot of it is nostalgic. As we put up the tree and dig out the old ornaments to hang on it, I look at some of them and remember fondly the days gone by. Every time I hang up the ornaments that were made as a gift for our boys by our late neighbor ,Marvel Hedum, it brings back memories. I can still hear them laughing excitedly and see the twinkle they had in their eyes as they looked at the gifts under the tree, wondering what was under that wrapping paper.
There are other things that remind me of my childhood and the special times that we had at Christmas, like the first time that I heard Gene Autry singing “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” on the radio. Back then, we had a tall floor model radio and that was our evening entertainment — no TV, just radio. I actually still have the original .78 record of that song.
To this day, I’ve tried to carry on the tradition of decorating the inside of our house to what some may consider extreme. My mother would always have the small living room in our house decorated with strings of holly and tinsel strung across the ceiling; she was great at making it truly seem like Christmas. Every gift was a treasure and as a kid you always wanted a toy or something that was considered “neat” by kid standards. If I did get clothes, I would have to pretend to be excited, even though they fit into the necessity category along with socks and underwear.
The days before Christmas at our house were always happy, even though there were some lean years and not always much money for presents. It was times like this that made a person appreciate the closeness of our family and the friends that we had. As a kid, you didn’t really think about it, but as an adult I often reflect back on those days and remember fondly how special they were.
Although Christmas is a time of family, presents and song, we need to take time to remember the real reason that we are celebrating this holiday.
Until next time: I want to wish everyone the very merriest of Christmases.
Please show your support for the troops that are serving our country, some of whom are deployed and will not be home during this holiday season. These servicemen and women are making that sacrifice, so that we may enjoy the many freedoms that we have today.