Blog 2221 – 11.17.2021

“It’s Fruitcake Weather”

One of my long time holiday tradition that I have been observing for a number of years is listening to the lovely voice of actress Celeste Holm reading Truman Capote’s classic tale from his childhood, “A Christmas Memory.” It always begins with his beloved elder cousin waking up one early November morning and exclaiming, “It’s Fruitcake Weather.”

It is a touching and heartbreaking tale of two all but forgotten souls who find great comfort in one another’s company. If you have never seen one of the many film versions, read it, or heard Celeste read it, do yourself a favor this holiday season and spend a few minutes with a little boy called Buddy not because that was his name, but because he reminded a sweet older lady of a boy she knew when she was a child by that name. She never stopped being a child and you like Buddy and me will find yourself looking forward every November to hearing those delicious three words, “It’s Fruitcake Weather.”

Time was when most people starting working on trying to whittle down their Christmas card list to make it something more manageable and more accomplishable this time of year. But like writing letters, mailing Christmas cards is something fewer and fewer people do these days. They’d much rather send emails or texts to a handful of family and friends. Buddy and his friend saved money all year to buy the ingredients so they could bake thirty fruits cakes and pay for postage to mail them to their list of special friends, mostly strangers, but people they nevertheless felt a special relationship to.

This year I found a small box of Christmas cards in a resell shop. There were only fourteen cards in the box, but fortunately I only have fourteen complete addresses in the little address and phone number book that I carry in my wallet so I did not have a hard time coming up with my abbreviated Christmas card list.

Over my short weekend, I have to work this Saturday my first one in several years, and my short three day work week next week, I will be addressing envelops, enclosing short special notes, and getting Christmas stamps to mail the fourteen cards by Thanksgiving weekend.

I am so glad and grateful that my circle of friends, the ever enlarging circle that I consider my family, is way too big to buy gifts for every one, even a small Christmas card. Why the postage alone would require both houses of Congress to fund. Fourteen people will receive the above card in the mail before Christmas (I hope) but the rest of you will get yours early, today as a matter of fact. I wish with all my heart that I could send each of you a homemade fruit cake too. After all, “It’s fruitcake weather.”

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory (1966 Emmy Winner) – DVD Color

Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory (1966 Emmy Winner) – DVD Color

This was my first experience of Truman Capote’s classic tale. Enjoy.