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<\/a>Like everything else in 2020<\/strong>, I\u2019m guessing Christmas this year will be a little different for you.\u00a0 Probably fewer people gathered together, maybe a change from the regular venue, Santa could be wearing a mask instead of a beard and perhaps the gifts given and received might be a little different, as suggested by Suzanne last week.\u00a0 But I have no doubt that the \u2018Christmas Spirit\u2019<\/strong> will prevail \u2013 assuming you don\u2019t run out of Christmas \u2018spirits\u2019.\u00a0 If Covid<\/strong> has taught us anything, it\u2019s that sometimes we need a change of routine in order to appreciate the routine.<\/p>\nSo, as we prepare for whatever this holiday will bring, I can\u2019t help but recall my most unusual Christmas \u2013 it took place in 1968<\/strong>.\u00a0 As a backdrop for those who weren\u2019t around then or as a stark reminder to those who were, 1968 was a crazy year!\u00a0 The U.S. was ass-deep in a very unpopular Viet Nam war<\/strong>, causing unrest on college campuses in the form of protests and draft card burning. \u00a0Martin Luther King<\/strong> and Robert Kennedy<\/strong> were assassinated; the Soviet Union<\/strong> invaded Czechoslovakia<\/strong>, Richard Nixon<\/strong> beat Hubert Humphrey<\/strong> and George Wallace<\/strong> to be elected to his first term as president, streets were filled with civil<\/strong> and gender-rights<\/strong> protests – some not so peaceful, 82<\/strong> crewmen of the USS Pueblo<\/em><\/strong> were held captive most of the year by North Korea;<\/strong>\u00a0Mao Tse-Tung<\/strong> celebrated 20 years as communist leader of China<\/strong> and the Zodiac killer<\/strong> (who has yet to be found to this day) is on the prowl in California. In December of that year, three Apollo 8<\/strong> astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell <\/strong>and William Anders<\/strong>, became the first to circle the moon<\/strong>, in preparation for the first moon landing<\/strong> seven months hence.<\/p>\n Don and me in front of house in Atsugi, Japan.\u00a0 Dec. 1968<\/p><\/div>\n In 1968 I was an Ensign<\/strong> in the Navy<\/strong> (ours!) and in July of that year I received orders for Atsugi Naval Air Station, Japan<\/strong>.\u00a0 By December, my wife and I and our dog, Xoon<\/strong>, were living in a small, two-bedroom house, surrounded by Japanese neighbors, about four miles from the base on Dog School Road<\/strong> \u2013 apparently, there was a dog school nearby; I’m not sure if it was a pre-school or a pee-school.\u00a0 Thousands of miles from home in a foreign country, we were planning for a fairly lonely Christmas, our first and only one without family or friends.\u00a0 Then, about two weeks before Christmas, I got a letter (no cell phones or even email in those days) from my best friend, Don Klapperich, who was a Navy F-4 jet pilot<\/strong>, assigned to the aircraft carrier, USS <\/em><\/strong>Coral Sea<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 He wrote that their ship, that had been on combat duty in the South China Sea<\/strong>, was coming into Yokohama<\/strong> for Christmas, and that their squadron (VF-151) allowed them to send for their wives to spend the holidays in Japan.<\/p>\n What great news!!!\u00a0 What was going to be a very dismal Christmas, just got significantly better.\u00a0 Don was not only my best friend, but my singing partner from high school, and since he had his guitar with him (not in his aircraft, but on the \u2018boat\u2019) and I had mine, Christmas Eve found the four of us gathered around our \u2018space heater\u2019 chatting and<\/strong> singing songs<\/strong>, which I recorded on a reel-to-reel tape. \u00a0I still have the recording, which I converted to a CD, and when I listen to it today, it takes me back to that most-unusual Christmas far from home.<\/p>\n That cold Christmas morning we woke up to no presents under no tree and no stockings hung by the chimney with care \u2013 we had no chimney.\u00a0 But we did exchange gifts, then drove to the Officer\u2019s Club on base, which had a TV<\/strong>, in order to watch our astronauts circle the moon and provide us with that iconic \u2018Earth Rise\u2019 photo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Iconic ‘Earth Rise’ photo – December 1968<\/p><\/div>\n As we headed back home for the evening, we looked to the sky and saw a bright, crescent moon and marveled that three astronauts were up there circling it.\u00a0 So, when I was expecting a lonely Christmas far from home, it turned out to be one of my most memorable Christmases ever.<\/p>\n My point, and I apologize for the rather circuitous route in getting to it, is that this Christmas will undoubtedly be different, presumably like no other you\u2019ve ever or will ever experience, but with a little luck and a positive attitude, it may turn into a Christmas you\u2019ll never forget \u2013 in a good way.<\/p>\n We\u2019d love to hear how you\u2019re planning to make this Christmas a pleasantly, different one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow Like everything else in 2020, I\u2019m guessing Christmas this year will be a little different for you.\u00a0 Probably fewer people gathered together, maybe a change from the regular venue, Santa could be wearing a mask instead of … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Atsugi-225x300.jpg\")
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