Entries in seasonal (21)
Happier With a Hoover . . . or a Lamp
Monday, December 10, 2012 at 10:36PM 
I love old magazines, mostly for the ads. Nothing captures an era quite like its advertising.
Can you see the print on the circular-skirted shirt dress? It’s stylized evergreen trees, chubby angels and doves. The fifties equivalent of a Christmas sweater, perhaps. Did anyone ever wear dresses like it?
In case you can’t read the fine print—and who could?—I’ll quote it for you:
P. S. to husbands:
She cares about her home, you know, so if you really care about her … wouldn’t it be a good idea to consider a Hoover for Christmas? Prices start at $66.95. Model 29 (shown here) $95.95. Low down payment; easy terms. See your Hoover dealer now.
This ad takes me back to our first Christmas in Whitehorse, only a few months after we moved here. We—husband, wife, baby—came with everything we owned in the back of a pick-up truck. We brought no furniture and had no money.
By Christmas, we’d picked up a few used pieces—a couch and chair set, a stand for the T.V., a kitchen table with chairs, a crib, a bed, and a couple of dressers—but the apartment was still bare. My husband bought me a new end table and an expensive lamp for Christmas, and I was happy with my gifts.
I’d made a few friends, especially one woman who took me under her wings and encouraged me as I learned to live far from family and care for a young baby. She phoned on Christmas to ask what gifts I’d received and I told her. “I wish,” she said, “I could be happy just getting things for the house.”
At the time, I thought her remark didn’t bother me—at least not much—but thirty years later, it was the first thing I thought of when I read the text for this ad. And I could quote her words exactly. It was intended as a compliment, but it took a tiny piece of my joy.
The end table’s gone, but the lamp is here, right now, on the bedside table, reminding me of a husband who loved me and gave me good gifts. I am still happy with my lamp.
This is a redone post from December 2007.
Ah, Holy Jesus
Friday, April 6, 2012 at 9:03AM I love this hymn, but I don’t think I’ve ever sung it in a service. Have you? It’d be especially appropriate during the passion season.
Ah, holy Jesus, how hast Thou offended,
That man to judge Thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by Thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.
Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon Thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone Thee.
’Twas I, Lord, Jesus, I it was denied Thee!
I crucified Thee.
Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered;
For man’s atonement, while he nothing heedeth,
God intercedeth.
For me, kind Jesus, was Thy incarnation,
Thy mortal sorrow, and Thy life’s oblation;
Thy death of anguish and Thy bitter passion,
For my salvation.
Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay Thee,
I do adore Thee, and will ever pray Thee,
Think on Thy pity and Thy love unswerving,
Not my deserving.
—Johann Heerman
