CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

I am a baby boomer, born in 1946. My Mom was a stay at home mom, like most mom's of that era, and my Dad worked for the same company, Western Electric, until he retired after 35 years at the age of 55. My brother and I attended St. Rita's Parochial School and along with reading, writing and arithmetic we got a heavy dose of religion. That was a different time and place compared to today and calls to mind many fond memories. Spending our first Christmas on Bainbridge Island after almost 30 years on Kings Mountain brought these memories into sharp focus.

Christmas was a big deal at St. Rita's with both secular and religious activities. Sometime after Thanksgiving the entire school assembled in the parish auditorium and watched The Miracle on 34th Street. We also practiced Christmas Carols which we would sing at the 9:00 AM Children's Mass. In the 50's and 60's St. Rita's was a big parish. On Sundays Masses were held at 6:30 AM, 7:15, 8:15, 9:00 (the children's Mass) 10:00, 11:00 and 12:15 PM. We were expected to sit with our class and the nun that taught us for this 9:00 AM Mass.

Unlike today with the Christmas Season starting after Halloween our Christmas season began after Thanksgiving and then it was a slow start. My family put Christmas lights in the windows and hung a wreath on the front door; but the tree was a different story. I think my brother and I truly believed, as did all our friends, in Santa Claus until probably the 3rd grade. Prior to Christmas my Mom would be busy baking cookies; but the house was not really decorated. However; on Christmas morning my brother and I woke up to a decorated house, a tree trimmed and sparkling with lights and tinsel and our Christmas Garden with our American Flyer trains and of course, piles of presents. How did Santa do all this?

Years later our parents shared with us how "Santa" accomplished so much at our house. On Christmas Eve after my brother and I hung our stockings and put out milk and cookies for Santa we promptly went to bed as Santa did not visit homes where children were still awake. This was when our parents went to work. The Christmas Garden, a 4 by 8 foot winter village scene complete with houses, snow, and the American Flyer trains was assembled, wired and set up by my father. My mother trimmed the tree and wrapped all the presents. My parents shared that on some occasions they would just be finishing everything and it would almost be daylight. On one Christmas morning they heard me and my brother about to leave our bedroom and they told us that Santa had not yet been to our house and we better go back to sleep ! Hearing these stories I understood why my parents liked to just sit around on Christmas Day and relax .... they were tired having gotten little or no sleep on Christmas Eve!

After Sunday Mass my brother and I spent the day emptying our Christmas stockings and playing with our gifts and trains. By early evening we had Christmas dinner. Since we always had a roast turkey at Thanksgiving on Christmas it would be a baked ham with mashed potatoes, vegetable side dishes and dinner rolls. Of course desert would be an assortment of Christmas cookies that my Mom had baked and maybe a homemade fruit cake. It was always a most enjoyable day.

The days immediately after Christmas we visited family, especially our grandparents. My brother and I always enjoyed these visits because it meant more presents and more cookies and candy. My paternal grandmother made excellent Russian Tea cookies and kept our glasses full of Pepsi Cola. My maternal grandfather introduced us to the tangy taste of ginger ale as he used ginger ale in his high ball cocktails. These visits also gave my brother and me the opportunity to visit with aunts, uncles and our cousins. At my Grandmother's the adults would sit around the dining room table and us kids would gather in the living room and watch television, share comic books and stuff ourselves with treats and sweets. These were good times that I will always remember.

Merry Christmas Everyone,

bob

BANKS - PART OF THE ECONOMIC SOLUTION OR THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM

I hope Thanksgiving was pleasant for everyone and under the circumstances most of us had much for which to be thankful. In my first letter I briefly described our 14 hour journey north and as you know we made it. We have been kept busy throughout November with the arrival of our furniture, buying some appliances, getting phone, TV and internet set up and fencing part of the property. Surprisingly, with few exceptions all service personnel and deliveries have been made in a timely and courteous manner. The pace, if not the residents of Bainbridge, seem to be less rushed and more civil and easy going. Our Thanksgiving was reminiscent of Thanksgivings on Kings Mountain. We were joined by our son, Devin, and friends Ralph and Mary Miller. We experienced some of the coldest weather to hit Bainbridge in years complete with a snowstorm and a 36 hour power outage. We felt right at home!

As many of you know the sale of our Kings Mountain house took two years. If it had not been for the diligence and hard work of our real estate agent, Margot Lockwood, we might still be residing in California. Of course the state of the economy and the current housing market meant a sale yielding somewhat less than what we planned in 2008. As a result a modest mortgage was needed to purchase our second home on Bainbridge. Yes, we already own a home in the Rolling Bay area of the island; but after being a rental for five years it would need quite a bit of work to bring it up to our standards. Consequently we decided that rather than embark on a long remodel program we would find a house in move in or turnkey condition. We found such a house in the Lynwood Center area of the island. A charming craftsman style house on 2.5 acres surrounded by trees with a salmon stream running through the property.

However; there was a gorilla in the room when it came to putting together the sale of the Kings Mountain house and the purchase of the Bainbridge house. That gorilla was the bank or more specifically the bank's underwriters. We used the services of a Seattle area mortgage broker and were prequalified for our loan. Skyline was sold and our buyer, who is more than financially qualified, was given the third degree by the Wells Fargo underwriters. The documentation and paper work he was forced to provide was endless. Then it was our turn. In spite of being prequalified our lender began making demands for documents, statements and letters of explanation that continued right up until close of escrow. Having no consumer debt except an interest free car loan, credit scores of 790,795 and 800, money in the bank and more than sufficient income the underwriters demanded more proof of our credit worthiness and intentions.

Our lender demanded proof of earnings for my last two years of teaching even though I retired in 2008. We had to provided letters stating that we intended to live in the Lynwood house as husband and wife (I added until death do us part) and explain why we were selling an expensive house in California and buying a less expensive house in Washington. In this letter I gave a crash course on the CA economy, empty nest situation, retirement and downsizing. Most of these letters required editing and rewriting to control my sarcasm and tongue in cheek humor. Without a doubt the underwriters are the most annoying, persnickety, supercilious bunch of anal retentive nit pickers I have ever encountered. No wonder the housing market is in a slump.

To anyone contemplating a sale or applying for a mortgage prepare yourself for an ordeal. Having bailed out the banks with our tax money it is ironic that we are now treated as their problem rather than the funding source that provided a solution to their financial difficulties. They were too big to fail and we are too little to matter.