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[ 5 minute read ]

Doorstep Deliveries

Those were the Days

Yesterday was the 6th December, Saint Nicklaus Day. ' It is the feast day of Saint Nicholas of Myra; it falls within the season of Advent. It is celebrated as a Christian festival with particular regard to Saint Nicholas' reputation as a bringer of gifts, as well as through the attendance of church services.' 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas_Day

I first heard of it when I was seventeen and working in Bayern (Bavaria, Southern Germany). My girlfriend told me that in her town, children would put their shoes outside and St. Nicholas would put nuts and fruit in them for the children to delightedly find the next morning. I was in Muhldorf am Inn in Winter, where my girlfriend of the time lived and I can understand that anything that cannot stand getting wet from snowfall would not be in the shoes.

Muhldorf am Inn is, on the Inn river; the same one that InnsBruck is on and is one of those German towns that has a traditional Christmas market, with hot mulled wine (Gluhwein) and Lebkuchen for sale. On course, my girlfriend knew everybody and got us free Gluhwein, but not too much.

I am lucky because as a child, with two siblings, we had traditional German-type Christmas with real candles on the tree and fruit and nuts on our own Christmas plates. I have fond memories of those days, and yesterday remembered about St. Nicolas Day with some nostalgia. When I stepped out of my house yesterday, 'Lo and Behold!' My neighbour, Sally, had left another half a dozen eggs on my doorstep. This time though, she had half hidden them behind the planter that I have planted garlic in, on the other side of the path. Hmm! Does she think porch pirates might steal the gift? 

Sally knows I think things through, try to work out what is what and why. She is as sharp as you like and knows that I like puzzles. As I have said before, she might merely be trying to stimulate me, much as animals in a zoo are stimulated by zoo-keepers when they hide food for the animals up trees and things. In any case, I appreciate the gifts very much and the sentiment behind them. It is so fine that there is always a special date on which she makes her deliveries.

Despite being English, born and bred, and able to trace my family history back to the 13th century and Diss in Norfolk, I have a kind of melancholy for the romantic folk songs of Eastern Europe. Though it is not the first time I have come across Romanian folk music, I am a little bit hooked on Storm Large's rendition of 'Până când nu te iubeam' performed with Pink Martini (available on YouTube) and previously recorded by Maria Tănase, I think in the 1940s, though you will find the date as 2000 or 2001, even 2015 online with Spotify, but she died in June 1963.

I can sing a bit and have been trying to learn 'Those were the days' sung by Mary Hopkin, her number 1 hit in 1968, in the 1970 Eurovision song contest. It is a Russian folk tune and I think Mary Hopkin does not really do it justice with her clear English accented voice. But it was 1970, and the height of the Cold War, and Europe might not have appreciated a bear of a man similar to Tevye, the main character in 'Fiddler on the Roof', a 1964 musical, who sang, 'If I was a Rich Man' singing a Russian inspired song at the 1970 Eurovision song contest. Nonetheless, I am inspired by Mary Hopkin's rendition, and it suddenly came into my head a few days ago. Unfortunately, I am really rubbish at remembering song lyrics so it is a considerable effort for me to remember the words. So far, I have half the chorus in my head after a week.

I also like and make marionettes which have a strong following in places like Prague, still in the Czech Republic I hope. I can't help thinking that I have a strong European link from having worked near Munich at a young age. I must have picked up something. It is easy to make these links though. All I have to do is recognise a number of memories and collate them without giving them much thought and Voila! I am suddenly Europeanese. The songs I mentioned and many others like them are the roots to many modern songs, or perhaps more so for songs twenty or thirty years ago; and my love of marionettes is inspired by the ones I saw in the bedroom I shared with two boys in another family for six months when I was ten. Of course, having a German girlfriend at seventeen probably has a strong nostalgic effect on me too.

Sally, next door, is definitely on my Christmas card list but how do I personalise it? I ask myself. Perhaps something substantial might accompany a card. I have a lot of egg boxes that I might be able to dissolve and reform into little nativity characters and angels, I think. We'll see. I am, however, really mindful of inadvertently setting up a forced situation where reciprocal gifts are deemed to be necessary. It has been weird to just accept doorstep gifts from Sally, but I did start it by leaving Sally some tomatoes I grew, on her doorstep. It is a valuable lesson, I am sure, to be able to accept gifts because someone simply wants to give them.