It’s time to think about family and friends

By Lethbridge Herald on December 24, 2022.

LEAVE IT TO BEEBER
Al Beeber – Lethbridge Herald

Tomorrow is the big day for kids and kids at heart – Christmas Day. For many Christmas celebrations may have begun last night with the start of a long weekend for many.

After all the health struggles I’ve been having this year, I may have indulged a bit last night and I may again tonight. There comes a time in a year when we all have to put aside the stress, work and worries and take a deep breath and just relax.

Being a guy who only knows one speed – full – relaxing isn’t easy for me. I tend to just collapse instead. Slowing down and enjoying life and the company of others is something I keep putting off which I know I have to stop doing.

So this weekend, I’m letting the hair down so to speak and going off script and schedule. I’m not counting steps or walking Ben three or four times to make up for lost time during the week. I’m actually going to slow down and enjoy the season.

 I may do a dram or two in memories of loved ones long gone and long-time friendships that have withstood the test of time and distance.

Since early 2019 when dad died, I haven’t taken any time for self-care which is more than just crashing early in the evening to get the body recharged for attacking the next day before dawn. I need to take a step back and start appreciating what I have in life, including family and friends.

We only get one shot at this thing called life and I feel I’m hitting the rim instead of putting the ball through the mesh. 

I’m the only one still alive from my immediate family and this weekend I’m going to remember those precious good times we had. It won’t be easy because they were few and far between but they existed nonetheless, the best Christmases being in Cardston in the Sixties from our first year there in 1965 when I met the now-legendary radio host Marv Gunderson to our last before the move to Raymond. 

Those early childhood memories of glistening tinsel, glowing lights and delicate ornaments and a family that did seem sort of normal at times are precious ones I seldom think about anymore. The first day in Cardston in December of 1965 after the family moved from Westock my brother and I were dropped off at the theatre to see a movie called “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” which featured a very young Pia Zadora. Even as a six-year-old, I thought it was as dumb as dirt.

Since I was 16, the majority of my Christmases have been spent working, including at Highway 52 Feeders during high school with my neighbour and great friend, the late Doug Bassett. He and I would would drive to the feedlot early on Christmas morning, check all the pens, make beds of fresh straw for any calves that might have been born and we’d medicate cattle that were sick. 

Aside from the feed truck operators, we were alone there tending the 15,000 or so head on Christmas morning and it didn’t seem like work – we were caring for living, sentient beings, a task that was more like a reward than a job.

In Ontario, my first Christmas away from Alberta in 1980 was probably one of the most memorable. To my surprise, some student athletes and cheerleaders from Fort Frances High School on Christmas Eve afternoon came to my apartment – which I never locked – and cleaned it spotlessly. I was a 21-year-old sports writer and much of my work involved covering high school sports. 

I was absolutely stunned at this unexpected kindness.

With some of those athletes in Grade 13 and being only two years younger than me, I was to a good degree in the same age group and as the years progressed, a few of us became close friends and still are to this day.

In small-town northern Ontario in the early ‘80s, by the age of 21 many people my age were already married and they had long-established friendships so a newcomer could easily feel a bit isolated. But the student athletes of Fort High were among many who made me feel part of their world.

They hauled me out of the warmth of my apartment in -30 to try ice-fishing for the first time and to play tackle football in the snow and a couple – Don Wood and Rick Asselin – taught me how to water-ski in summer at the Wood family cabin. 

And when I once wrote in a column about a tenuous desire to get in better shape which I figured was important for a guy covering sports, a group joined me on nightly two-mile runs until I reached my goal, encouraging me every step of each mile, helping me to push myself. 

And that first Christmas in 1980 after spending the day alone, I answered a knock at the door in the evening to find Muskie quarterback Mike Cameron at the doorstep, bringing me dinner from his parents –  his dad Jack who was the high school vice principal. That night and my second Christmas Day there, Mike came over just to play cards and hang out to keep me company on what can be an extremely lonely time for a person without family. 

The year my mom got remarried here in Lethbridge I made a 19-hour drive back to Ontario after a week out west and Mike – who was now in college – was at my place before dawn rousing me for a day on a distant lake. That’s the kind of friendships we developed. 

This weekend, I’m going to spend a lot of time thinking about those friendships, as well as the kindness I’ve been shown by so many over the years and truly try to appreciate what this season is about and the joys I’ve experienced during the season over the decades with friends and my family who have put up with a lot from me over the years due to the demands of this craft.

I hope all of you and yours feel the spirit too, this weekend – with spirits or without. It does live inside of us, we just have to search a bit and we will find the glow of Christmas warming our souls.

This year, I’ve had the pleasure of talking to, or writing about, many of you and have developed some amazing friendships in this great city we call home.

Have a truly wonderful Christmas and New Year’s. 

Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter.