And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that there is a single panel cartoon which appears in daily papers called “Pluggers.”

I appreciate it because I relate to it. Mostly, it features an old guy who relates to things of his youth much better than to anything modern.

I thought about that when a famous actress and her famous actress daughter died within a few days of each other recently.

“Mom” was a year or so older than I am and so was at her peak of popularity when I was of an age to appreciate her song and dance and blonde beauty. I saw most of her movies.

Daughter was born the year I graduated from university and so was most popular about the time I quit going to motion picture theaters. She apparently was best known for her role in science fiction movies, and I never ever watched one of them, not even when they appeared on television. Reality features enough fiction to satisfy me. So, I had no idea who she was, which certainly dates me and probably makes me a Plugger!

I guess I am a Plugger when it comes to the Christmas season, too. I was reminded at church Sunday that the Christian observance extends to the Epiphany, Jan. 6, the last of the 12 days of Christmas. My Christmas lights stay lit until then, and are not turned on before Dec. 15. “The world” starts Christmas no later than Thanksgiving, and sometimes lights and decorations appear well before Thanksgiving-right after Halloween. And come down the day after Christmas!

When people talk about the “holiday season” it actually covers a period of two and a half months, from Halloween preparation through New Year’s Day. As an only child who never married and therefore “begot” (love that word!) no children, Christmas was less meaningful for me than for most. I made good use of the “bah, humbug” line in my working days, particularly when this newspaper came out twice a week, before offset printing, before computers, in the letterpress era. Filling the pages of a newspaper requires the same amount of the “X” quantity, no matter how many hours are devoted to it. So before modern inventions, it was normal for me to work at least part of every holiday-occasioned day off.

And as for New Year’s Eve, I think I was awake to see a new year in exactly three times in my life, and two of those times were in the same calendar year. It was a different day I observed in Japan and in Hong Kong.

I don’t mean this to be a “downer” column. It’s just that different things mean different things to different folks.