Socialist Santa - 1978

Socialist Santa - 1978
Originally uploaded by AArt Vark.

The only Santa Claus I remember ever seeing was this one in 1978. The (State run) company where my mother worked decided to have a Christmas party with Santa Claus handing out presents to children. Santa was one of my mother's co-workers doing the best he could with the limited resources provided him by the Socialist Republic of Romania. He did not succeed very well as he was one pathetic, skinny Santa looking more like a child molester than a jolly fat man.
My mother still recalls, and I actually do very vividly as well, the exchange I had with him.
- Who are you?
- Why, I'm Santa, little boy.
- No you're not! ...And I kicked him in the shin with all my might.
In retrospect, the poor bastard probably did try his best.

Irritating Holiday Season Particulars

(In no particular order and to be added to...)
- Increased traffic due to shoppers driving like zombies between malls and mega-stores.
- Insufferable "seasonal" music in commercials with bells constantly jingling and peppy voices singing.
- Suicide rate goes up - or is this an urban legend? If individuals really want to do themselves in, they should feel free to do it any time of the year. If they don't feel like it any other time they should not use a holiday as a "crutch" to help them.

Shifting Sands of Technology, The

It is interesting to note that at Sav-On one can now get CDR's, DVDR's, USB cables, flash memory key chains, bubble jet ink and more along those lines. The shelf of pens has been whittled down to about 1/8 of it's former glory and good luck trying to find an acceptable pocket calendar made of paper...

Progress marches on.

Where to, no one knows.