Hi everyone, it's been a while but I came back to the blog and it was still here like a good and faithful dog just waiting for me to come home.
I ventured out into the realm of Twitch for a couple of times in 2020 as a broadcaster and decided it wasn't for me. I applaud those who make a go of it and make it look so easy. In reality it's like the early days of live television albeit the equipment is much more sophisticated. Each Twitch streamer basically has to set up their own broadcast studio and run all the tech as well as perform, any one of those is a daunting task. I was doing some story telling with pictures behind me on green screen so I was doing a lot of scene changes and frankly, I wasn't enjoying it so I stopped.
My goal for the coming year is to post at least once a week. I've recently won a micro-flash fiction contest and have come across what looks like an really neat monthly flash fiction contest out of Australia. So maybe I'll be posting them up here.
My current book Dead People From the Attic is available in hard copy from budscott.com and in ebook format from smashwords.com.
Ho, Ho, Ho
From left to right: Bob Knolls, Rick Webster, Me in the Santa suit, Mr. Norton and Mr. White, Buzz Hackett
This picture was taken on Christmas eve 1940. Buzz and I were going to take the truck around to our customers’ homes and I (Santa) was to give out candy canes to the children and calendars to their parents. This sounds innocent enough, but you’d be surprised how much trouble two grown men can get into.
Even though the government said that the Depression was over, they didn’t live in our neck of the woods. There were people just scraping by. Mr. Norton and Mr. White owned the oil company I worked for and thought it would be nice to give a little something back to our customers. They had also given us a list of those customers who owed us money. We had about a hundred customers and the list only had about twelve names on it. They wanted us to “just mention” the past due bills and see if we could collect a bit. So much for good will to all.
Just as we were all to go our separate ways, me and Buzz to deliver candy canes and Bob and Rick to head home to their families, Mr. Norton came around. He shook our hands and as he did said, “Merry Christmas”, he placed a twenty-dollar gold piece in each of our hands and told us it was our Christmas bonus.
All the boys were thrilled with the windfall. I may have been the least enthused; since my wife ran off I had nobody to buy gifts for but it would fund a good two day drunk. I pocketed mine like everyone else and thanked Mr. Norton and Mr. White.
Buzz was the new kid on the block, having only been with the company since August. I was supposed to be taking him around and showing him the ropes. So Santa and his helper jumped in the truck and were off.
The first few stops were pretty uneventful. I’d get out and do my Santa thing. The moms would take the calendars and usually hand us a tin of homemade goodies. We had made our circuit of most of the houses on our list, but saved the slow pays for last. Neither Buzz nor I wanted to talk about what people owed at Christmas time and I’d pretty much decided not to mention it at all.
Buzz swung the truck around the corner and headed into the less desirable end of town. You could see the yards weren’t kept up quite as well. Many of the houses needed a fresh coat of paint. Some yards had cars up on blocks in the midst of a repair. Nevertheless, Santa was there to spread good will.
At the first stop three children wearing threadbare clothes came running out followed by their mother. You could see she was happy for the children but there was some underlying burden she was carrying. I went over to hand her a calendar, determined not to say anything about her past due bill when she surprised me by bringing it up.
She looked me in the eyes and said, “Santa, I know we are a bit behind in our payment but they cut my husband’s hours back at the mill. Is there any way you could let us have just twenty gallons of oil to get us through till the New Year? My husband is supposed to go back full time next year.”
I looked at her and the kids and the house then said, “Buzz, put twenty gallons of oil in this lady’s tank.”
I could see tears welling up in her eyes and I had to turn away. You can’t let the kids see Santa cry.
Buzz said, “But Santa, I thought—“
I cut him off mid-sentence. “Ho, Ho, Ho, Santa knows what he’s doing.”
Buzz just shrugged and pulled out the hose and gave her twenty gallons. I dutifully wrote it down in the log book.
Then the kid’s mom said, “God bless you Santa.”
Well that’s kind of how it went for the last twelve stops.
Only two of them didn’t ask for more oil.
It was just getting dark when we rolled back up at the office and I could still see a light on in Mr. Norton’s office. I told Buzz to take off and I’d handle telling Mr. Norton. I’ll tell him I made you do it and I am totally responsible.
Mr. Norton’s door was open when I came in and I pulled off my Santa hat and mask. I cleared my throat and Mr. Norton looked up.
“Well how’d it go?”
I handed him the log book and he looked it over.
“That’s two-hundred gallons of my oil you have given out on credit and to the exact people I wanted you to collect from. What’s the meaning of this?”
“Well sir, some of these people have fallen on hard times. There’s been cutbacks at the mill and ... you should have seen some of them. Those women looked like they had the weight of the world on their shoulders. All they needed was a helping hand.”
“I run a business here, not a charity!”
“I know sir.”
I handed him the twenty-dollar gold piece that had briefly resided in my pocket.
“I think this should cover all the oil from today and then some. Please split whatever is left across all of the outstanding debts.”
“But, why would you do this?”
“Well I’ve got nobody to buy gifts for and I’d have just blown it anyway. It’s just me and the cat so there’s not much to celebrate. But if you could have seen the way those kids’ eyes sparkled just from getting a candy cane, and it was the same way with their moms. Twenty dollars is a cheap price for all of that.”
I could see the boss was thinking hard on what I just said and thought it might be a good time to make my exit.
“Good night Mr. Norton, and Merry Christmas.” I began to edge my way toward the door.
“Hold up there. Why don’t you come and have Christmas dinner with my wife and me? My son and his wife will be there and a couple of rambunctious grand kids. There is always plenty of food. I won’t take no for an answer.”
“What time?”
“5:00”, he said as he flipped the twenty-dollar gold piece my way.
I caught it in mid-air and looked at him inquisitively.
“I think I can absorb a twenty-dollar loss better than one of my employees. See you tomorrow.”
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