Christmas Time In Jersey

Christmas Time in Jersey

Now I do love spending all the holidays in Jersey, Christmas time was always outta this world for me. I love the cold weather and loved riding my big wheel down our long driveway in my poofy coat and feeling my cheeks get a stinging feeling from the cold temperatures. Praying to god for a month of snow days and well for the super cool new Star Wars X-Wing fighter, hey it was the 70s I was 6, and Star Wars was the shit !!!

I even had that crazy uncle that would do doughnuts in the parking lot of the local A&P when it snowed out followed by the golden rule.. “Steven Don’t Tell Your Mother”

But the years 1985 to 1989 were very special to me not only were the High School years, but these were the years that were going to shape me into an adult hood..

First off the Food.. I am Sicilian/Irish and my mom is the Sicilian her cooking is amazing even to this day, but during the month of December, it was supercharged. She must have spent the whole month in the kitchen after work, making her honey balls and anisette cookies not to mention her other assortment of Italian cookies and I wasn’t allowed to eat any of it lol. Well I was but she cooked for people in the neighborhood and we got ours when everyone else got theirs.

I would be riding home on my bike (That Mongoose Moto Mag lol) hit the end of our block and just smelled whatever she had cooking you just knew it came from our kitchen window. What I really loved was how the house felt because it would be cold as all hell outside, hotter than hell inside and she would open the windows for the house to cool off I can’t explain it but I just loved the way the house felt..

Now at this time, I was pumping gas at the local gas station across the street it was my first real job as a teen. Now Maplewood was a small town I mean it still is but they have built up so much that the feeling is gone the people living there now are just fooling themselves. But we had a melting pot of people and during this time of year, you just had a good feeling but not just in Maplewood but everywhere. Don’t forget I also spent time in Newark and Kearny, no matter if I was at Dickie Dees or Tony’s Hot Dogs. Or at the local Quick Check on Kearny Ave, there was just a good feeling. Ok, so you did have your chuckleheads but not really that many this time of year.

I will admit if you were shopping at the Essex Green, Livingston Mall or Union Market place yea that nice shit went out the window lol. Hey, we’re Jersey not a friggin Candy Land lol.

Now I will say this pumping gas at that Gas Station was my favorite time of the year, it was the 80s so we didn’t get tips I mean every once in a very blue moon but still. Some of the cars that would come in would be decorated in some way, just about everyone was a little to a lot nicer. The people walking by to get to the train station, park, or Maplewood village would wave and say hello this one lawyer every day during Christmas always wore a Santa hat to and from the train station. The snowball fights with my friends that would walk by even the older kids that chased us were nicer and didn’t chase us so much then as we got older and saw them in the local bars they would buy us drinks lol.

I even miss the diners during Christmas, the decorations they would put up and just the feeling you got when you walked in. If you were a frequent customer like I was at the Maplewood Diner, Ormos in Irvington, and The Sage Diner they would give you extra of what you ordered one year it was an extra tin of Cheese Fries and Gravy yes a whole extra order! I almost kissed the waitress lol..

Now knowing my stomach that should have been the best memory but no…

It is the sleigh riding down floods hill in South Orange or walking on the frozen ice at the Duck Pond in Maplewood and yes a leg for foot would fall through the ice at times. One year one of us that shall not be named when through the whole fucking thing lol and he got literally soaked and we rushed to his house which was more than a few blocks and yes two weeks later when it was frozen over again we went right back on it lol Even with our bikes at times.

I gotta admit some of the shit we did thank god there were no cell phone cameras yet..

But the best memories are kept in your head so you can always get to them…