Baby Boomers Fiction – Underlying Notes by Eva Pasco

Read any Good Books Lately?

I have purchased and enjoyed Underlying Notes by Eva Pasco. Note: you can follow the link in the previous sentence to enjoy the first 3 chapters and order the book for yourself. It is a gripping story about an everywoman who reinvents herself at an age when many of us are just trying to settle in.

We are thrilled and quite flattered to include some words from the author too! The essay below was written for those of us in the over 50 age group who are sentimental about Christmas seasons of the past.

The Ghosts of Christmases Past

 

Kindred over-fifty readers, we’re not “over the hill,” but perched on its summit affording our mind’s eye a panoramic purview of vestiges from the past: black and white TV, canned sit-com laughter, drugstores with soda fountains, cobblers, milkmen, two-laned highways, saddle shoes and knee socks, film reels, back-to-back double features at the movie theater…Never one to personally embrace Norman Rockwell’s brush stroked vision of Americans on canvas, this holiday season, more so than any other, I find myself in need of insulation from the stark reality that plays out day to day as though we are impoverished Cratchits– our garments picked threadbare from the exorbitant cost of living and repercussions from the recession.  The H1N1 pandemic and increasing incidents of violence making headline news send me scrambling to the crest of the hill, seeking solace and sanctuary from ghosts of Christmases past hovering over earth’s blanket of freshly fallen snow, untrodden and unsodden by folly. 

 

I take comfort in lyrics where Bing dreams of a “White Christmas” with every handwritten Christmas card he writes, licking stamps a fraction of today’s cost.  My imagination walks through a “Winter Wonderland,” building a snowman resembling Parson Brown without mistrust of the clergy.  Riding in the unpolluted air in a one-horse open sleigh, there are no qualms about squandering precious fuel.  I welcome the serenade of jingling bells and become misty-eyed at a child who wishes for “two front teeth” instead of electronic games and bling under the tree.  Decking the halls with boughs of holly while chestnuts roast on an open fire, reinforce holidays as family endeavors, gatherings, and celebrations.  My ghosts of Christmases past remind me that through the years we will always be together if the Fates allow, so all the better to revel in the moment by hanging a star upon the highest bow and having ourselves a merry little Christmas.  Fa la la la la la la la la…

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I seek the old-fashioned, black-and-white, sappy/sentimental films which make their seasonal debut, narrowing it down to these favorites:

 

Christmas in Connecticut(1945): Barbara Stanwyck portrays  Elizabeth Lane , a writer for a women’s magazine whose popularity is based on the falsehoods she is married, lives in the country, and is as versatile a homemaker as Martha Stewart. To garner publicity, Ms. Stanwyck’s publisher stages a country weekend inviting war hero, Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan), to her farm. The farcical, far-fetched, predictable, charming, and screwball turn of events cushion me like powdery drifts of snow.

 

It’s a Wonderful Life(1946): Though this was a box office flop when first released, the movie became a seasonal classic since the Seventies. This dark, bittersweet, post-World War II film starring James Stewart weaves a tale about George Bailey, a savings-and-loan manager, who struggles against a greedy banker while festering in his own self-doubts to the point of contemplating suicide. Through his suffering, and by the encouragement of an angel named Clarence, George Bailey begins to recognize his life as truly rich and wonderful.  The film revives my own appreciation of self with all the jubilance of dancing snowflakes.

 

A Christmas Carol (1951): Charles Dickens’ classic first came to the screen starring Alistair Sims as skinflint Ebenezer Scrooge who categorizes Christmas as a “poor excuse to pick a man’s pocket every December.”  Ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future impart the real meaning of Christmas, and Scrooge redeems himself by performing acts of benevolence and charity.  I am reminded how it is never too late to change by reinventing ourselves as though fashioning angels in the snow.

 

The ghosts of Christmases past, wherever they may lurk, emphasize holidays are about the warm feelings stirred by family and friends.  If the Fates allow, may each of us find peace, harmony, and serenity as we string bubble lights, drape tinsel, hang ornaments, or bake gingerbread cookies. Let’s not merely open presents, but open our hearts to spiritual enrichment.

 

Eva Pasco

Author, Underlying Notes

 

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