Many years ago I tried my hand at writing a couple of Christmas columns based on historic carols.
I wasn’t any good and the humor I tried was just as bad. I came across this one and thought I would share it.
It’s about lost family time and how grandpa came to the rescue with his quick thinking.
♪ ღ ♪’Twas the night before Christmas & out on the ranch The pond was froze over & so was the branch.
The snow was piled up belly-deep to a mule.
The kids were all home on vacation from school, And happier young folks you never did see- Just all sprawled around a-watchin’ TV.
Then suddenly, some time around 8 o’clock, There came a surprise that gave them a shock!
The power went off, the TV went dead!
When Grandpa came in from out in the shed With an armload of wood, the house was all dark.
“Just what I expected,” they heard him remark “Them power line wires must be down from the snow.
Seems sorter like times on the ranch long ago.”
“I’ll hunt up some candles,” said Mom. “With their light, And the fireplace, I reckon we’ll make out all right.”
The teenagers all seemed enveloped in gloom.
Then Grandpa came back from a trip to his room, Uncased his old fiddle and started to play That old Christmas song about bells on a sleigh.
Mom started to sing, and first thing they knew Both Pop and the kids were all singing it, too.
They sang Christmas carols, they sang “Holy Night,” Their eyes all a-shine in the ruddy firelight.
They played some charades Mom recalled from her youth, And Pop read a passage from God’s Book of Truth.
They stayed up ’til midnight and, would you believe, The youngsters agreed ’twas a fine Christmas Eve.
Grandpa rose early, some time before dawn; And when the kids wakened, the power was on.
“The power company sure got the line repaired quick,” Said Grandpa — and no one suspected his trick.
Last night, for the sake of some old-fashioned fun, He had pulled the main switch — the old Son-of-a-Gun!
• Rick Head is the Publisher and Editor of The Brantley Beacon and the Waycross Journal- Herald. He can be reached at beacon@btconline. net
