{"id":1204,"date":"2015-12-12T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-12T11:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2015\/12\/some-traditions-fade-away.html"},"modified":"2015-12-12T11:45:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-12T11:45:00","slug":"some-traditions-fade-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2015\/12\/some-traditions-fade-away.html","title":{"rendered":"Some traditions fade away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

And so they do. Lucy tells Charlie Brown that after she pulls the football away from him in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving<\/i>. \u00a0And it is true. \u00a0Traditions sometimes fade away. \u00a0I\u2019ll post more on how I think this fits with what is happening in the Catholic Faith \u2013 if not in most Christian traditions \u2013 later. \u00a0But for now, I acknowledge it is true.<\/p>\n

It was back many years ago. \u00a0I was a freshman in high school. \u00a0That would be in 1981. It was after my birthday, but before Christmas. We were meeting my sister\u2019s new boyfriend. \u00a0She had gone through her first divorce, and this fellow was destined to be her second ex-husband. \u00a0But at the time we had hope that things would be working out for her for the better.<\/p>\n

We went to meet her at Thistlewood Apartments, a low income housing area in our small, rural county seat where the two of us had grown up. \u00a0We met him. \u00a0I was never impressed I will say, and I stand by my appraisal that he wasn\u2019t going to be good news. \u00a0Still, he did buy me the Adventure <\/i>cartridge game for my Atari game system, so that increased my feeling about him at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Where Dad sometimes worked. \u00a0He actually let me run
the engine a couple times when I was older<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

But that night we decided to go out to dinner at a place my Dad had discovered. He was a train engineer. \u00a0At the time he was working a yard job out of a small yard near Mansfield, Ohio. \u00a0A few years earlier, he had found this restaurant called Papa\u2019s Gondola. \u00a0A small, family Italian place whose proprietor \u2013 Papa \u2013 was an Italian. \u00a0You just know the food had to be good. \u00a0And it was. \u00a0We had eaten there a few times before. <\/p>\n

So we went. \u00a0After dinner, we planned on going to the house of a fellow who was getting a reputation for setting up a pretty nifty Christmas lights display. \u00a0He worked for Ohio Edison (our electric co-op), and used his equipment to deck the halls and towering pine trees all around his multi-acre yard. \u00a0Back then, that was something. \u00a0Long before digital light shows and dime a dozen musical home displays, something like that was the glaring exception rather than the rule. <\/p>\n

So we went. \u00a0The dinner was likely good, as always. \u00a0It still is by the way, even though Papa has long gone from running the place. \u00a0We then went to find the display. \u00a0Dad had seen it from the railroad tracks when he was working the road (that is, taking trains from yards in one city to another). \u00a0On our way, we got turned around and went down a small neighborhood street. \u00a0A house there had an nice little display in its own right. \u00a0As we drove by, an elderly gentleman was standing on the other side of the street opposite the house by the mailbox. \u00a0He stopped us and introduced his house display. \u00a0He told us to enjoy as we drove through, though there was nowhere but past his house to drive.<\/p>\n

We went on. \u00a0The street was a dead end and we had to go back around. \u00a0We came back and the fellow was still there. \u00a0He stopped us again, and began boasting about his display, even saying that he was almost willing to hang lights on his wife. \u00a0The fact is, however, his was not the display we were looking for. \u00a0Nor was it close to as impressive, as we found out once we arrived at our goal. \u00a0Still, at the time, we had a good laugh, even if it was at the poor fellow\u2019s expense. \u00a0It was a nice display after all. \u00a0We just thought it funny that he put such pride in it when, impressive that it was, it didn\u2019t hold a candle to our ultimate objective.<\/p>\n

Once we found the actual light show we were seeking, we were impressed. \u00a0At the time, save for some downtown displays in Akron that my parents took me to a couple times, that was the most I had ever seen at a single place. \u00a0It actually took a few minutes to drive through and we didn\u2019t even see everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Richland Mall as I remember it\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Anyway, we enjoyed the whole experience enough that we went back the next year. \u00a0The next year we added going shopping at the Richland Mall in Ontario, just outside of Mansfield. \u00a0North of Columbus and south of Akron, that was about the largest shopping mall we had. \u00a0We had gone there around Christmas time throughout my childhood. \u00a0It always had large displays, with animatronic figures in elaborately staged Christmas scenes, two large fountains in the center aisles, and all the stores we could ask for \u2013 including a Five and Ten and a Waldenbooks. <\/p>\n

From that year on, except for my couple years living in Florida, every year we would go to Mansfield, eat at Papa\u2019s, go shopping at the mall, and go see the lights. \u00a0And that included my wife and children as they came into the scene. \u00a0Eventually the fellow who had the lights display retired and ceased putting up his lights. \u00a0But the county fairgrounds down the road from the mall had started putting up quite a lights display, so we simply moved there. <\/p>\n

All of this is to say that this year we found out the lights display at the fairgrounds has been sold out. \u00a0It simply could no longer keep up the bills. \u00a0It had tried to raise the money, but was unable to do so. \u00a0The mall, too, isn\u2019t what it used to be. \u00a0As many malls in the area are. \u00a0Great Northland Mall in Columbus for example, the cultural center of my college years, and one of the largest shopping areas in north-central Ohio back in the 80s, is now a parking lot. <\/p>\n

So this year we will go to Papa\u2019s, which had to close for a few months a year or so ago in order to get itself back on financial track. \u00a0We will swing by the mall \u2013 what is left of it \u2013 and let the kids (my Sister\u2019s granddaughter as well) see Santa. \u00a0Then we\u2019ll go to my Sister\u2019s house for cake and some coffee. \u00a0There are no lights displays in the Mansfield area now. \u00a0None that match the former. \u00a0There are some down in our area, but that\u2019s too far to go in one night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Still there, and a remnant of a favorite tradition<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So for the first time since 1981, save a couple years while I lived in Florida, we will not go to Papa\u2019s and follow up with a lights show. \u00a0So you see, traditions do ultimately fade away. \u00a0Things change. \u00a0People die. \u00a0My Dad is gone. \u00a0My Sister\u2019s beau at that time eventually married and then divorced her. \u00a0In fact, her next husband after him just died a couple years ago. \u00a0Papa is no longer involved in the restaurant, if he is even alive. \u00a0And I\u2019m sure the elderly gentleman who thought we had driven across Ohio just to see his own humble display has also moved on from this life, given his age at the time.<\/p>\n

Like it or not, that\u2019s the way traditions go. \u00a0Even the big ones. \u00a0And today, we live in a time where more and more a tradition, by virtue of being a tradition, is seen as expendable by a growing segment of our society. \u00a0So for those who want to put conservatism aside and embrace the latest, hippest, the ball is in their court. \u00a0And that includes those who are enamored with Pope Francis, who has made it clear that the time has come to embrace change<\/a>, and not get hung up with the expendable things of the past. <\/p>\n

History is on his side of course. \u00a0If you cling to traditions, you are fighting a long defeat. \u00a0It remains to be seen, however, if getting rid of traditions before their time is not harmful to a society. \u00a0But accepting that they will change, just like this one little tradition in our lives, is likely part of being in the world of time. \u00a0Like it or not.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And so they do. Lucy tells Charlie Brown that after she pulls the football away from him in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. \u00a0And it is true. \u00a0Traditions sometimes fade away. \u00a0I\u2019ll post more on how I think this fits with what is happening in the Catholic Faith \u2013 if not in most Christian traditions \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSome traditions fade away<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"And so they do. 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