There are lots of things in the month of December that make the magic of Christmas come alive, such as the lights, the decorations, the concerts, the parties and the music.
For me, it’s the music, but perhaps not what you would expect from a long-time rock ‘n roll drummer.
Christmas’ magic music for me goes back to 1955 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
I went to school in the poorer section of the seaport city and lived in a neighbourhood that was equally poor, near the waterfront.
Of course, I didn’t know we were poor, because all my friends had the same social situation as I did, with a future that saw adult employment in the dock yards, the Moirs Chocolate factory, (of Pot of Gold fame) or the military.
We all knew that we lived on the wrong side of the tracks and that our futures were pretty well preordained.
That December in 1955, a rich group of ladies representing a charity organization came to our school to hand out free tickets for a Christmas concert on the other side of the tracks.
I received a ticket and took it home to my parents, who, when they got home that night, decided that I should go.
However, not without some preparation since the concert was on a Saturday afternoon in a concert hall, the other side of the city, where I had never been before.
On the day of the event, I was cleaned up and dressed up with a new pair of britches, the type that had leather knee pads; and you had to wear long socks to reach the bottom of the britches.
Next was a clean shirt, a tie with a thin black elastic strap that went under your collar, and a striped short sleeved v-neck cardigan sweater.
I hated the whole outfit, but my mother insisted that I should not look like a welfare bum, which strangely enough, we almost were at the time!
The final part of my travelling ensemble was twenty-five cents! Five cents to be spent on the bus fair each way, and 15 cents for a treat.
At noon, I got on the bus that was about to cross the equivalent of the Berlin Wall in my mind, and was told to politely ask the driver to let me know when I arrived at my stop, and to sit near the driver so I could hear him; and to not bother him!
When I got to the concert hall, there were kids from all over the city; however none that came from my part of town.
The concert hall is now long gone, but in a strange twist of fate, in my late teens I would play with a rock band to a crowd of hundreds of loud teenagers in this same hall.
But, I digress. My seat was near the front of the very large stage, with tall dark curtains and in the orchestra pit, were lots of men in black suits and women in long black gowns.
I had just encountered my first symphony.
After the hall filled up, the lights went down and the music started; and so did my first introduction to the Christmas music classic, The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky.
But wait, there’s more.
The curtains open and over the next two hours there was a Christmas pantomime with the Russian and Arabian dance – the Waltz of the Flowers, the Chinese Dance, the March of the Wooden Soldiers and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.
The music was magic, as were the dancers. The crowd, and I - we loved every moment.
When I left the concert, the music and images were still in my head as I put my nickel in the bus fare box.
That night, after a supper of a never ending supply of cod fish and boiled potatoes, washed down with a strong up of tea, I planned my after church Sunday afternoon walk along Barrington and Gottington streets, to look at the store front windows with wonderful Christmas displays, some of them even having figures that moved.
The grand finale would be the windows of Nova Scotia Light and Power Company, who always had the best in pre-animatronics figure displays; and, all of these Christmas wonders were for free!
At home, beside my bed was a somewhat ugly green plastic G.E. AM radio. Sometimes, at night I would turn it on after I went to bed, keeping the volume low.
There were not a lot of radio stations and it was the time before FM band. However, there was good old C.B.C. on your dial and one night, before Christmas I did find a symphony orchestra playing The Nutcracker Suite. It brought back all the Christmas magic of that concert.
Now, 61 years later, the full magic of the Christmas season doesn’t touch me until I hear The Nutcracker Suite; and experience memories of a lifetime of Christmas’s past.
Merry Christmas everyone!
