Date and Time

Date and Time Please


Another year has passed and another shall start anew.  Traditional year end happenings of light shows, religious events, and joyous celebration that marks the  success of the world going around the Sun one more time and cheer on its  journey anew on January 1. To mark this momentous occasion people around the world dance, sing, cheer, feast, and make promises to 'Do Better'.

Another tradition that most everyone in the 1st world countries do at this time of optimism and anticipation is to acquire a new calendar to mark the upcoming year.  In fact, there are whole retail establishments dedicated to the selling of calendars. These  'Pop Ups' are transient as the Time they sell and exist only for six weeks or so.

In these almost spiritual manifestations of society's need to look forward and beyond the present are calendars of dogs, puppies, cats, kittens, sports figures, girl figures, flowers, ships, weather, cars, toys, and recipes.  Some have stickers, others do not.  Some have tear off pages and some are simply flip ups.  However, if you are of the philosophical ilk that believes the price of a calendar does not dictate the future you can always pick one up at no charge at most gas stations, grocery stores, pharmacies or tire shops for your "Free Time".

Some calendars have Sunday at the beginning of the week and others have Monday.  Some holidays are printed in red, some mark good fishing and others mark the phases of the moon or good planting times.

Sometimes there are on the back pages space for Important Numbers and Addresses. There are sometimes  Time Zone maps and small replica's of last year's and the year that will be coming next for those who want to remember or to plan far ahead (I always like to know what day my next birthday will fall on).


Calendars say a lot about the households they are in.
For some, one of the most important aspects of a calendar is the size of the space allotted to each date for writing in important appointments, anniversaries, and birthdays, meetings, club dates, tournaments, and oil changes.
In other houses the calendar may not  have a a single mark on them and others are left languishing hung up on the wall with the current page three months in arrears. Proof  that one can sometimes get so busy that the passing of time is only lived and not observed.

I have a recipe calendar from 30 years ago that I kept because someday I will find that one bit of ingredient in the local Coop so that I can 'do it right and not substitute.
I also have a calendar that at one time  belonged on my Mother- in- law's kitchen wall with little notes marking who she had let have 3 jars of pickles (not that she resented the pickles but because she wanted the jars back),  and also  when the wheat was put in on the 'rented' land.  

These paper recordings of personal history  reflect  our values and priorities. They indicate what and who we value even more so I believe than what our Google History reveals because it takes more than a click to actually record Time and Dates.  It takes forward thought and planning on a visual spreadsheet that is as accessible as just looking at the calendar on the wall.   

May this New Year be filled with memories of Joyous Times as you look back on your own calendar and relive some lovely times  made more real  because they were written pen in hand in  concrete anticipation. 

A short calendar story.  I once went to visit a friend's house on January 1.  My friend's Mother had 12 calendars--all different--turned open on the kitchen table. Each calendar was at a different month and with the help of my friend and myself she climbed on a step ladder and hung all 12 calendars up on the wall side by side...January to December.  The year at a glance.  Each calendar different .  Each picture different.  All sizes and all types.  Each calendar forever distained to remain at the chosen month for the rest of its year of value.

Arc De Triomphe

During one of my Christmas breaks between University semesters a group of friends and  myself went on 'tour' visiting our respective families.   A couple came from Regina to my parents' farm home , slept overnight, and then I joined them on the trip to another friend's home for an overnight stay in another rural community and consequently piled them and their luggage into the ever more crowded compact car and drove again to another community staying overnight and again traveling the next day .  We went from Lemberg, Wapella, Redvers, Weyburn and Halbrite and back to Regina in time for classes to begin.

It was at this time whilst staying in a modest  farmhouse which was probably built in the 1920's and heated by oil furnace that I was privileged to witness a family's literal 'timeless' New Year's tradition.

The morning of January 1 of this particular year my friend's Mom asked him to go find the ladder and bring it to the kitchen.  He nodded knowingly and went outside soon to return with  a frosty wooden step ladder marked with  the paint splatters of many household renovations from the past.  

I watched with curiosity as my friend,without direction or comment, placed the step ladder directly in front of the archway between the kitchen and living room, while his mother was interestingly enough busying herself by ripping pages off of calendars.

It was only when my friend ,  giving a brief knowing glance at his mother, climbed the stepladder that I noticed several calendars tacked to the wall above the arch.  I counted twelve calendars in total.

It was then that I realized what was going to happen.  The twelve calendars from 'last year' were about to be replaced by twelve calendars of 'this year', with each showing their own particular month of the year.  Every calendar was different, from a different place of business or particular theme.  They were different sizes and styles.  Some had tractors or prairie scenes, others were from local grocery stores or drug stores with images of flowers, birds, recipes, or animals. Some had large numbers and days displayed which would be  easily read from the floor, while others  smaller and more compact which would make viewing  more difficult. 

 Much, if not all,  of this melange of pictures, colours, size, and print was 'par hazard'. I do not believe there was a conscious choice made as to which  picture would be  chosen  to rest for the year beside another as calendar pages were ripped off. The goal was merely to have one page of each coming month of the year be exposed.  

The evidence that this was not the first time this was done was not only the almost total non verbal communication between the two decorators, but also by the numerous faded rectangular shapes that dotted the archway along with the telltale holes left by tacks and staples in the  long ago painted pressboard.

While perhaps some of the balance, colours, and spacing was not quite 'right' artistically, there was something 'right' in the son and mother camaraderie as he descended the ladder and  they both stepped back and looked up approvingly at the next year's Arc De Triomphe . 

 

 

 

It is a nice memory.