The Viewing of the Lights

Way back long in the long ago, well… not that long ago, but it seems like a long time ago to me a regular holiday event was to pile into the car and go look at the various displays of Christmas lights.

The main attraction being to head to the heights around Red Mountain and see how the rich people had decorated their homes.

This time mind you was the 60s, back when there were only three channels on TV and one, being Alabama Public Television, was never watched anyway, and the phones were not smart, heck, they were so stupid they had to be leased to the wall with a cord, I guess so they wouldn’t wander off into traffic, I’m just saying if you wanted entertainment you had to go out and hunt for it.  

I imagine this `viewing of the lights’ has go the way of Drive-In Movies, Bowling Allies and Putt-Putt Golf; I know the last time I got taken on one was when I was something like 7, and that was some time ago indeed.

I mean do the “rich folks” even do this sort of thing anymore? Or is it too gauche, or are too many of today’s rich too staunchly Objectivist to take part in such things?

Not that there aren’t all kinds of lights, alight… it’s just that most of the impressive displays I see seem to be on businesses.

Most, but not all.

                       Note the fire to the right of the light at the bottom

    After all those break-ins it had to happen sooner or later

Return of An Old Holiday Treat

I remember this old treat that use to show up around the holidays that I haven’t had literally in decades.

The part about it I remember most, other than how good it was, was the strange bit that at the time the cake came out of a can.

Seriously cake from a can? Yep a can, however I wasn’t even sure what sort of cake it was, this being such an old memory.

Doing some research (Google) I was able to find a picture of the can I remember it coming in. That’s when I found out that it was Dromedary Date Nut Roll, which has not been produced for years.

Out of luck? Hardly there are plenty of date bread recipes… yeah, forget that.

Going to the same place I found the picture of the Date Nut Roll* I found a local bakery that makes date Nut bread, to avoid making this an ad I’ll just say it’s in Homewood.

With that, and some whipped cream cheese, I was able to savor a treat I haven’t had since I was 12.

It was great!

* They may have enslaved half the world but it’s still the best search engine.