A couple more Christmas cards from people I don't remember at all - and one from someone I think I do. At least, if it's from the Jim I remember, it's the kind of Christmas card he would send. He'd probably even send one like it today. I was in touch with him around the time of my 40th high school reunion. He's a nonrepentent 1950's Republican, with a snide little smirk of a smile and an even more inappropriate sense of humor than I have. The Christmas card? (and how many of these could they sell today?) Well, it's got a rifle leaning against a wall next to a red hunting cap, and two quite dead stuffed grouse hanging upside down beneath a lovely pine wreath with red holly berries (accenting the red hunting cap, no doubt). The message purports "To wish (me) a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." Uh huh! :)

A postcard of Arden House, Harriman Campus of Columbia University in Harriman, New York (as in Averill, I suppose) - I must have bought it, no one sent it - no memory of this one at all. I was never there, that I can remember. A Christmas card from someone named Shirley, long forgotten, covered in sparkly poinsettias, saying that I'm nice to know. A bus ticket, stamped in Louisville, Kentucky and travelling to Olney, Illinois. This one, I remember...

It was a stealth trip to see my lover, who was on furlough or something, from Ft. Knox, Kentucky. Olney is where my college roommate lived. I think I told my folks that I was going home with Anne for the weekend, and went on from there by bus to Louisville, then back to Olney, coming back to college with her. This was 1963. One did not just go to see one's boyfriend for the weekend. One snuck. I don't remember anything of Louisville, except being in bed with my man. I don't even remember the sex specifically. But I can still see him there, stretched out beside me, his uniform on a chair or something, I think. I can just see us in that hotel room, as if it will last forever. His favorite painting at that time was van Gogh's "Bedroom in Arles," which hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago, and I still think of him whenever I remember the painting. I remember that hotel room in Louisville. Just a snapshot of a memory. Like the painting on the wall.

All right. Who the hell is this? The name is vaguely familiar, but I have no recall of having anything to do with him. He sends me a Christmas card - one of those funny ones - "I've got something that'll give you a warm feeling this Christmas.....hot hands."

"Have a cool Yule and a frigid first!" Whatever he means by a frigid first. Cool Yule dates this. I can remember thinking it was cool to say "cool Yule." Very Sinatra, somehow. Remember. The Beatles may be just around the corner, but they ain't here yet!

December 1962 - and I have a Christmas card from an old flame - yes, even in 1962, at the ripe old age of 19, I have an "old flame". Those of you who have read my jolly little bio may recall my mentioning meeting a little darlin' at a Luther League convention at Cornell University, and spending the entire convention making out in the bushes. Well, that was David. It would have been only a couple of years before this, I believe. Years later, when I was married to my second husband, he called me from Texas, having tracked me down through my parents who still lived at the old address. He was married then, but his wife was out of town, and he seemed to be in a melancholy "where did the love of my youth go?" mood. I know we just talked for awhile. As I recall, it was hard for me to relate to him, mostly because I was nervous about what he really wanted, and not wanting to encourage him in any way. About a month later, an operator called me. It seems his wife found the charges on the long distance bill (we must have talked for about an hour, at least, and this was in 1973 or so). It took me awhile to realize what the operator was talking about, but when I did, I explained, and then tried to assure the operator that it was just a call from an old friend and to please not upset his wife in any way. I wonder if it did.

The card is a black and white photo of an old covered bridge in the snow. He only wishes me a wonderful Christmas.