![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2024\/12\/The_Hat_Alhambra-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>I was delighted to learn this morning that The Hat<\/a> has expanded beyond its cradle in the San Gabriel Valley. \u00a0The Hat was founded in 1951, with its first location at the corner of Garfield Avenue and Valley Boulevard in Alhambra. \u00a0That was the very place that I grew up going to \u2014 it\u2019s still there and its appearance hasn\u2019t changed much \u2014 and old photos of the original location are, as far as I can tell, displayed in all of the chain\u2019s current restaurants.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve never eaten anything at any iteration of The Hat other than its incredible pastrami dip sandwich. \u00a0(Why forsake perfection for a risky experiment with something that cannot possibly be better?) \u00a0And, on occasion, I supplemented the sandwich with The Hat\u2019s onion rings, which are quite good. \u00a0(However, I should warn you that, at least as of the last time that I tried the location in Temple City, their \u201csmall\u201d order of onion rings seems to have weighed in at around fifty pounds, a quantity that no group of humans below battalion strength could ever really hope to master.). \u00a0The pastrami dip is to die for. \u00a0(My wife would say \u201cliterally so.\u201d)<\/p>\n Anyway, I saw a billboard along I-15 announcing a location in Rancho Cucamonga and recognized it as one final opportunity for me to wallow in a native Southern Californian\u2019s nostalgia. \u00a0I had enjoyed a traditional date shake while looking over Crystal Cove from the Shake Shack that sits there beside the Pacific Coast Highway. \u00a0And, last night, I had introduced one of my granddaughters to music by The Beach Boys and to Jan and Dean\u2019s \u201cThe Little Old Lady from Pasadena.\u201d \u00a0(Colorado Boulevard was a familiar haunt of my youth.) \u00a0Otherwise, though, we didn\u2019t get up from Newport Beach to San Gabriel, we didn\u2019t visit my parents\u2019 graves at Rose Hills in Whittier or my brother\u2019s and my sister-in-law\u2019s graves in the San Gabriel Cemetery, part of our family was ultimately unable to make the trip from the Northeast and from Virginia out to California , and the son who was with us came down with a serious cold that eventually obliged us to warn my remaining Southern California nephew against driving down with his wife and children to spend a day with us. \u00a0Horrible person though I\u2019m claimed to be, even I didn\u2019t like the thought of ruining their Christmas.<\/p>\n So that last minute visit to The Hat in Cucamonga was a pleasant surprise before heading up over Cajon Pass. \u00a0On which, incidentally, a note from Wikipedia:<\/p>\n In 1851, a group of Mormon settlers led by Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich traveled through Cajon Pass in covered wagons on their way from Salt Lake City to southern California. A prominent rock formation in the pass, where the Mormon Road and the railway merge (at 34.3184\u00b0N 117.4920\u00b0W<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>, near Sullivan\u2019s Curve), is known as Mormon Rocks.<\/p>\n In Spanish, the word caj\u00f3n<\/i> refers to a box or drawer. The name of the pass is derived from the Spanish land grant encompassing the area; it was first referred to in English on an 1852 map. Early Latter-day Saint documents, which often referred to the pass as \u201cCahoon Pass\u201d, suggest an alternate explanation for the name, that it is named in honor of Mormon pioneer Andrew Cahoon (pronounced similarly to Cajon), who was an early settler in nearby San Bernardino and assisted in surveying and laying out the city of San Bernardino.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And now, continuing in my nostalgic vein, I return to a German Christmas carol for today\u2019s piece of Christmas music. \u00a0In this case, my nostalgia isn\u2019t exactly for das Vaterland<\/em> but for nearby German-speaking Switzerland and Austria (and, for similar reasons, for Bavaria). \u00a0So I offer up a rendition of a nineteenth-century German Christmas carol that has happy memories for me: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lB-VchYuOjs<\/a>.\u00a0 I also offer the German lyrics and a translation (by me) into English:<\/p>\n Kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, klingelingeling, Kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, klingelingeling, Kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, klingelingeling, Ring, little bells, ringalingaling, Ring, little bells, ringalingaling, Ring, little bells, ringalingaling, I\u2019m pleased to announce that the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s 2024 dramatic film, Six Days in August<\/em>, is now available on DVD and Blu-ray through Deseret Book. \u00a0I\u2019m told that it\u2019s physically available in some Deseret Book stores (and perhaps in some retail affiliates of Deseret Book), but probably not in all. \u00a0However, it is also available online via https:\/\/www.deseretbook.com\/product\/6078120.html<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and if you don\u2019t wait unduly long, there is apparently still time to have it arrive in time for Christmas. \u00a0And need I say that Six Days in August<\/em> would make an excellent Christmas gift? \u00a0Well, it would<\/em>.<\/p>\n In other news: \u00a0This went up today on the perpetually dying website of the perpetually dying website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0Interpreter Radio Show \u2014December 8, 2024, including The Book of Mormon in Context for \u201cThe Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\n<\/span>kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, kling!
\n<\/span>La\u00dft mich ein, ihr Kinder,
\n<\/span>ist so kalt der Winter,
\n<\/span>\u00f6ffnet mir die T\u00fcren,
\n<\/span>lasst mich nicht erfrieren!
\n<\/span>Kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, klingelingeling,
\n<\/span>kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, kling!<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, kling!
\n<\/span>M\u00e4dchen, h\u00f6rt, und B\u00fcbchen,
\n<\/span>macht mir auf das St\u00fcbchen,
\n<\/span>bring euch viele Gaben,
\n<\/span>sollt euch dran erlaben.
\n<\/span>Kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, klingelingeling,
\n<\/span>kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, kling!<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, kling!
\n<\/span>Hell ergl\u00fchn die Kerzen,
\n<\/span>\u00f6ffnet mir die Herzen!
\n<\/span>Will drin wohnen fr\u00f6hlich,
\n<\/span>frommes Kind, wie selig.
\n<\/span>Kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, klingelingeling,
\n<\/span>kling, Gl\u00f6ckchen, kling!<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Ring, little bells, ring!
\n<\/span>Let me in, you kids,
\n<\/span>So cold is the winter,
\n<\/span>Open the doors for me,
\n<\/span>Don\u2019t let me freeze!
\n<\/span>Ring, little bells, ringalingaling,
\n<\/span>Ring, little bells, ring!<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Ring, little bells, ring!
\n<\/span>Girls, listen, and boys,
\n<\/span>Open up the room for me,
\n<\/span>I bring you many gifts,
\n<\/span>You should enjoy them!
\n<\/span>Ring, little bells, ringalingaling,
\n<\/span>Ring, little bells, ring!<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Ring, little bells, ring!
\n<\/span>Brightly glow the candles,
\n<\/span>Open your hearts to me!
\n<\/span>I want to live there happily,
\n<\/span>Devout child, how blessed!
\n<\/span>Ring, little bells, ringalingaling,
\n<\/span>Ring, little bells, ring!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>