Happy birthday? Yes! Happy birthday

Today is that "special" day of the year; the day when I acknowledge I am a year older. Or, as someone has put it, I've made another trip around the sun. What do we mean when we say, "Happy Birtdhay!" Probably that we wish the recipient all good things and that we are glad they are here. What do we hear when people say, "Happy birthday"? This is not a downer post. Actually, quite the opposite. I am glad I turn 71 today. I am especially glad when people say, "I would guess you are in your 50s!" There are some advantages to being older and some of those advantages are tied to both happy and sad events in my life. I can remember back to when I was three years old and Dad and my uncle took me for a ride to look at "Christmas lights" on Third Street in my hometown, a neighborhood renowned for the lights and moving displays at Christmas. When we got home, Santa had come and gone that Christmas Eve and he left me a pedal tractor. Why I got a tractor, I can't remember. It was an Oliver 88 made in nearby South Bend and while other kids in our neighbrohood rode their tricycles and pedal race cars, I rode my tractor and planted pretend beans and corn and took the tractor to be repaired and the oil changed. While few city kids had tractors, I remember everyone wanted to ride mine. To remember a Christmas 68 years ago is a special gift. I remember vividly the 4th of July when I proposed to Linda and where. I remember thd ay of our wedding and the days when both of our kids were born. I remember great details of those days. Not bad for 40-plus years ago! My memories are some of my greatest treasures. There are bittersweet memories too, as you age. I remember both my grandfathers and how they smelled. That may sound strange if you are younger but odor is a great inducement to memory. I cannot smell the musty smell of damp wood without thinking of Grandpa Zellers' hosue in Winamac. I remember the smell of his chewing tobacco when he kissed my face. I remember the smell of Grandpa Phillips, too and I remember the many times dad and I would go to visit him and I would sit and listen while Dad and Grandpa talked about current events and so many things. We sat at the picnic table Grandpa built on a metal frame he bought. Later, I had that table until it was destroyed when a tree splingtered it during a storm. I also remember going to Grandpa Zellers' funeral visitation and repeatedly walking around and then back to the casket to see if he was really dead. I remember being asked to read scripture during Grandpa Phillips' funeral. That church was begun in Grandpa and Grandma's house on Oak Street. Grandpa Zellers had signed for the church furniture in the church he and Grandma Zellers attended. I don't remember either grandmother very well. Grandma Zellers died years before I was born and I was three when Grandma Phillips died. All I remember about Grandma Phillips was a time when a booger got wrapped up in my chewing gum and she cleaned up my nose and mouth. Then I recall the year I left the church ministry and went to work for a radio station when we moved in with Linda's parents. Dangerous Dan Jensen taught me how to run the control board. I was going to be a part time announcer. He introduced me -- "What name do you want to go by on the radio?" he asked. My first name was Terry but I always liked Frank, the middle name I shared with both grandfathers. So, "Frank Phillips" was born and the name stuck from 1994 to this day. I got an email from Dan this week. He has Stage 3 Colon Cancer. "Do you realize you and I were younger than both my kids when you and I met?" I asked him. I pray Dan makes it. I also remeinded him my wife had four surgeries for breast cancer 15 years ago and this week we got a thumbs up from her surgeon when we went in for her annual checkup. I remember when we moved to Elkhart. "You ahve met my family and now I will get to know your family," she said in the car as we followed the truck hauling our furniture. In the next few years, I helped do the service when my cousin, Kirby, got married and died a year later. I attended my aunt's funeral and her immediate family insisted I sit with them during the service. Then, in July, I was cleaning up the aftermath of a terrible wind storm that struck our small town when my cousin's daughter called to tell me her dad had died unexpectedly from a heart attck that morning. I have lots of happy memories with that family. They were the closest thing to brothers and sisters I had. I think it means a lot to me, also, as I age that I'm not as insecure as I was at a younger age. I trust my own thoughts and judgments more. I would definitely marry Linda all over again but there are a lot of other choices I would have changed. When people say, "I wouldn't do a thing differently in my life," I believe they are either lying or have not learned a thing. Getting older is a good thing -- if your faith is in Jesus Christ and you beleive you have an eternal home with a new body. Getting older isn't good or bad. But I consider it a blessing.

Christmas wonder at Forest Park

Visitors to Forest Park are greeted at the main entrance, in front of the fountain. The park is decorated for the holidays and will be a stopping off spot during Christmas festivities. Reminder: The Christmas in the Park Parade set for Friday night has been canceled due to COVID-19. If your organization has special plans for Christmas, we can publish them here. Email: frankphillips@gmail.com or call (765)280-1705. Copyright Frank Phillips, 2020. Support this blog through Patreon.com.

Family is the best part of the holidays

I hope you are having a great holiday! Each year, I look forward to Christmas with excitement and a little trepidation. I remember we spent at least two, maybe three Thanksgivings in a row in the hospital emergency rooms when the kids were small. They were all children's medical issues (not food related, I might add.) I can't tell you how many after-Christmases we spent sick instead of pursuing after-Christmas sales. It was one such holiday I learned I was allergic to penicillin and all the drugs in the "cillin" family. I got sick the day after Christmas and was taking penicillin. I was lying on the floor, curled up in a sleeping bag, when I thought my feet and legs were being attacked by insects. I didn't think there were bugs in my sleeping bag and jumping out of it didn't seem to help. A minute later I happened to look in the bathroom mirror to see a face I didn't recognize staring back. It was about the color of a lobster and swollen beyond recognition. Obviously, I survived. I have not always been concerned about spending Christmas with family. In college, I worked for a radio station and volunteered to work a 12-hour shift Christmas Day rather than going home to be with my parents. I'm glad I did it. I learned the hard way that grocery stores are not open at 5 a.m. Christmas morning. I had planned to buy some sustenance for the long shift. In those days, all our programming was on reel tapes, on records or live and since I was going to be the only person at the station, I would not be able to leave the building. The UPI teletype wire guys had a field day around midnight sending out bulletins about Santa's progress from the North Pole on Christmas Eve. I imagined some of them had children at home who might not see daddy when they awoke on Christmas morning. Chalk one up for being single with no children on Christmas. But Christmas 2015 was glorious. We were able to see both kids and their families and my in-laws over the Christmas weekend. I was able to talk to my cousin's widow on Christmas Eve. Louise lives in northern Indiana and has children about my age. Linda and I had a great time visiting with them a few months ago and Louise and I call each other around each holiday. On Christmas Day I got to hold and "visit" with my four-month-old grandson and his brothers and sisters. On one occasion I served as "protector" when our son-in-law's new drone flew too close to Joey and me. I got to listen while one granddaughter practiced reading. We admired another granddaughter in her "princess" dress complete with tiara and wand. The boys got toy trucks and a stunt set. All of the kids enjoyed their inflatable dinosaurs (which our princess decided to use as a club on her brothers and on me.) Then, on Sunday, we were with Linda's parents and our son and his family. Our granddaughter had asked for "Apples to Apples," a new card game designed to build one's vocabulary. I couldn't help thinking about the years I had to leave family gatherings early to go to work, to play records and do newscasts on a radio station or help get a newspaper ready for publication. I know there will be more years like that in the future (I doubt I ever retire) but most certainly time spent with family is best.

'Shoppers rush home with their treasures'

Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? Of course not, right? Everywhere we look we are reminded there aren't many days left and "soon it will be Christmas Day." 

I love that old song, "Silver Bells." It was first seen on the silver screen in the movie, "The Lemon Drop Kid." I like the William Frawley version from the movie. 

"Chuck it in, chuck it in

"Or Santa will give you a Mickey." 

A Mickey referred to Mickey Finn, a drink that would render the one who imbibed unconscious. 

The song was sung during a scene in downtown New York City, a few days before Christmas.  

Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell try to correct Frawley's understanding of giving to others at Christmas. We see a montage of pictures; a cab driver wishes his taxi was a sleigh, a little girl looks through a telescope and thinks she sees St. Nick, a vendor sells roasted chestnuts (I want to try those some day.) 

Then all the shoppers on that busy street sing in chorus, "Soon it will be Christmas Day." 

Dad and I used to watch "The Lemon Drop Kid" every Christmas Eve when I was in high school. Now, that movie is a staple for Linda and I every Christmas season. 

I love that scene from "The Lemon Drop Kid" because it reminds me of Christmas shopping when I was a child. 

In those days, we didn't go to a big box store to do our shopping. Big boxes came from little stores. 

Not long ago, on Facebook I shared an old black and white photo that reminded me of my home town. At first I thought it was Main Street in the 1940s (years before I was born). It pictured lavish street decorations and what looked like dozens, maybe a hundred automobiles crowding downtown shortly before Christmas as shoppers lined the sidewalks, dodging in and out of stores, carrying their packages filled with things they were giving as Christmas gifts. 

Then, someone pointed out it couldn't be my home town because all the cars were headed the same direction and our Main Street was two-way up and down the big hill where our business district set. 

Oh, well. That photo generated a lot of comment on Facebook. It seems many of us are nostalgic for the Christmas shopping we remember or that we have seen in "The Lemon Drop Kid" and other movies. 

Times change and in the words of Jane Wyatt, the mom on "Father Knows Best," "Why fight it?"

I hope my grandchildren have happy memories of shopping with their parents. It might be going to the big box store or looking online for toys they want. I'm afraid they won't share my joy of watching the huge electric train set dodge in and out of tunnels and past miniature villages that I watched every year in the toy department of a large department store, but I am sure they will have other happy memories to share. 

Have A 'Miraculous' Christmas

Over the weekend I remembered a feature that ran in a newspaper years ago. 

For some reason I began thinking about children’s letters to Santa Claus and how cute they were. We used to print them in the kids’ original handwriting, misspellings, bad grammar and all. 

With all the trust their little hearts could muster, they would write their letters to Santa, not intending to share them with anyone who read them in our newspaper but probably not caring because they just knew Santa was going to see them and answer their requests. 

I really enjoy the Santa scene. Not that I believe everything I see or hear, mind you, but I choose to believe in miracles. 

I remember the elderly lady who was on her “death bed” in the Columbus hospital years ago. 

Her doctor came into the room while I was there. I had been asked by a family member to stop by. The doctor told us she wouldn’t be around in the morning. 

His diagnosis seemed appropriate except … That night, she was asking for supper and lived to return home and enjoy life for several years afterward. 

Miraculous? Well, beyond our understanding. 

Guideposts magazine used to regularly carry stories of people who had near death experiences. The first time I read such an account it scared the devil out of me! Of course I was a child at the time and believed in miracles and in Santa. 

For decades now the church has wrung their collective hands and complained about attempts to exclude deity in any form from everything. 

Many people believe in what we might call “a closed universe.” That means anything that happens has to be explainable by known science. That excludes the possibility we have been visited by “little green men” from Mars or its vast neighborhood beyond Earth. 

A good friend of my explains away the possibility of time travel because we haven’t figured out how to do it. 

I wonder if people told the Wright brothers that human flight wasn't possible? Or, what people thought when someone said one day we would travel in a car at speeds of 80-plus mph? Could a human survive traveling that fast? It hadn’t happened up to then. 

This closed universe scenario even affects those believers inside the church. 

I remember visiting with a school teacher one evening. He was a Christian and he had determined the reason we can’t see Heaven is because it is always rotating on the opposite side of the Sun. The Sun is in the way so we can’t see Heaven! He didn’t believe that God could live in a dimension or or on a plane of existence other than what we see around us. 

I can’t explain the angelic appearances to Mary and Joseph concerning the coming birth of Jesus but I accept by faith that they happened. 

You may or may not teach your children there is a Santa Claus. I think your family will miss much enjoyment if you choose to ignore the big guy in the red and white suit, but that is certainly your privilege. 

I do urge you, however, to not try to explain away other miracles of Christmas. Just accept them and enjoy them! 

Frank Phillips is a reporter for The Brazil Times, Brazil, Ind. and a freelance writer. He can be reached by e-mail (unless you want to send a note via the North Pole) at frank.phillips@gmail.com. 

"Christmas in Connecticut" and "Eve's Christmas" reviewed

Two new reviews of Christmas movies have been uploaded to my podcast.

In the first show I review the original and the revised versions of "Christmas in Connecticut."

Today I uploaded a review of a 2004 Christmas movie titled "Eve's Christmas" starring Elisa Donovan and Cheryl Ladd.

Hope you enjoy. Each review runs about 10 minutes.

Click on: http://frankphillips.mypodcast.com .

Annual presentation spreads joy to community

By FRANK and LINDA PHILLIPS
frankphi@hotmail.com
Last Thursday through Saturday, Community Theatre of Clay County Inc. presented its annual Christmas show.
This year's offering was "Christmas at the Lark: Bell Birthdays and Heralds of Christmas" and it was really great.
Like an old-fashioned Christmas card, it opened to more than one page.
Through it all, the cast had past Christmases in mind. Christmases when two of the much loved theater cast were able to participate.
The much-loved Jean Sneddon-Martin took part in the shows. Not many years ago she tap danced on stage, her daughter-in-law, Susan Sneddon, recalled. Jean passed away unexpectedly last week. Christmases when Carl McKinney sang on stage after building the sets, some of which may have been used last week. Who can forget his enthused and energetic portrayal Nicely Nicely Johnson in "Guys and Dolls" earlier this season?
Carl suffered a broken shoulder in a car accident a week before the current Christmas show began.
Nevertheless, "the show must go on" as The Christmas Band director Col. Matt Huber has been known to say, and the show was wonderful.
Open page one of our community Christmas card and you see and immensely entertaining production called, "Heralds of Christmas" featuring the herald, Herald (David Maurey), and his brother Herald (Nick Ellis), whose job it is to get Santa Claus (Lee Reberger) to stop for the first time in their tiny village of Tater, at the end of the North Pole runway.
Herald's idea is to flash red lights at Santa during takeoff, so Rudolph gets disoriented and crashes. The townspeople do and Rudolph does. Santa's reply -- "all you had to do is write me a letter." Like the rest of the world. Duh!
Other cast members were Ashton Swearingen, Chris Swearingen, Elaine Clarke, Carol McConnell, Michelle McCrea, Amber Payne, Melody Lunsford, Nancy Kulow, Ashley Clarke, Becca Maurey, Kendra McCrea, Alyssa Clarke, Elizabeth Emmert, Katie Perkins, Misty Rissler, Kendra England, Bonnie Hutchins, Revecca Beyers, Trey Reberger, Samuel Beyers, Chandler Downing, David Swearingen, the Rev. Edward Randall, TJ Sneddon, Keri Fagg, Becky Taken Jim Garber, Julie Marey, Harold Burton and Kevin McCrea.
The Christmas Band featured Matt Huber, Allen Basore, Steven Garlits, Jeff Shively, Andy Whittington, Miranda Goodale, Darlene Shephard, Betty Niswonger, Janelle R. Huber and TJ Sneddon.
Rita Rothrock was the dinner theatre pianist and Barbara Randall the dinner theatre coordinator.
Turn the page and we find "Bells and the Birthday of Christmas" featuring a reverent look at the season in words and music.
Several of the songs were written by cast members.
"The Shepherd's Song" was written by Rev. Randall, "Jesus in the Manger" was written by Kevin McCrea and "A Mother's Prayer" was by Mitchell Lunsford, in honor of his brother, a Marine stationed in Iraq.
It was a wonderful evening of music, food and laughter, surrounded by dear friends and family members.

Review -- Beef & Board's Christmas Spectacular

By FRANK & LINDA PHILLIPS
frankphi@hotmail.com
It's difficult to review Beef & Board's annual Christmas Spectacular without sounding like advertising copy for the show, but here goes.
For the past eight years Linda and I have attended the Beef & Board's Christmas Spectaculars and each year they seem to get better.
Many of the songs are repeated year to year, but they are welcome numbers and we would miss them if they were left out of the program.
The show stopper this year has to be Gerald Atkins' rendition of "O Holy Night," for which he received a standing ovation Saturday.
A crowd of ladies from Brazil also attended the performance Saturday night.
They were enthusiastic about the show and particularly Mr. Atkins' solo.
"What did you like best?" I asked them on their way out.
Without hesitation, the answer was, "That man who sang, "O Holy Night"!
Linda was impressed with Mr. Atkins, too.

"I love that man!" she said. "His singing is great!"

I agree. That solo is something one would expect to hear in heaven.
But, not all the show was so reverent; there was a lot of fun, too.
Act One included such favorites as "It's the Holiday Season," "Sleigh Ride," "White Christmas," Winter Wonderland," "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" and "Silver Bells."
A relative new favorite that one doesn't hear except at Beef & Boards is "Indianapolis Indeed," a beautiful melody extolling the virtues of our state's capitol city.
The act was capped off with "Santa Baby" performed by Wims and a chorus of beauties.
The sections, "A Jinglin' Christmas," "Home for the Holidays" and "Traditional Christmas" comprised Act Two.
Who can forget the sight and sound of a man in the uniform of a United States Marine singing, "I'll Be Home For Christmas." What a lump rises to one's throat when we think about our servicemen and women stationed around the world, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Of course, Santa Claus was present for much of the show, along with his very shy elf, Jingle, played for the greatest comedy relief by Jeff Stockberger.
There are many new faces and voices in this year's Christmas Spectacular.
Kenny Shepard and Deb Wims serve as your hosts, bringing the variety show together in a most pleasing way. It didn't take Frank long to see parallels between this variety show and productions like the old "State Fair Variety Show" and the TV variety shows: Ed Sullivan, Garry Moore and even going back to Tennessee Ernie Ford. (Linda is too young to remember such TV shows.)
Christmas Spectacular is for the whole family, balanced and blended to be enjoyable for everyone from the oldest senior to the youngest child on his knee.