34 Years of Christmas Poems: Christmas 1990

This was the year it was going to end. It was three days before Christmas and I hadn't had one inkling of what to write nor the time to write it. It was over, done, a wrap.

We had purchased a brand new home and moved in in September. Naturally (and while still living out of unpacked boxes in many cases) you go for the "grand slam" and decorate like there's no tomorrow and take upon the entire family dinner/entertaining for the holidays. You see just how far you can ratchet up both the "joy" and "stress" factors without cracking. I believe this is another necessary stage in the rites of passage.

It was only when the cards started to come in, most with a comment like "Can't wait to see this year's poem" that the pressure started to really build. Naturally, that makes it worse. But in one tortured, marathon session, these frenzied, truthful six verses emerged. The relief was palpable. No fancy layout this time; just get it in the Mac and spit it out on paper. The tradition continued and the years spun on.

Christmas 1990

by

Richard Perrotti

This year, because we bought a home,

There will not be a Christmas poem.

No carols to sing nor egg to nog;

No firing up the old Yule log.

I’ve been so busy! I have no time

To sit and commit my thoughts to rhyme.

Amid this whirlwind, I do despair,

My Christmas spirit is just not there.

“So, where is the poem?” I kept getting asked

by everyone far and wide.

And when I told them my story,

They all kind of smiled and sighed.

“It’s really quite sad,” they told me,

“how traditions eventually end.”

And as I was hearing just how much it meant,

I started to get the feeling again.

It just took everyone to remind me

That Christmas still comes from within.

And the spirit that warms us and guides us

Needs nurturing in order to begin.

So here I sit writing this story

by the fireplace in our new home.

And I smile in amazement as I finish.

Well, what do you know… a Christmas poem!

December 1990, T minus 10 years to the Millennium:
1st - 56th Heisman Trophy Award: Ty Detmer, Brigham Young (QB)
1st - British & French workers meet in English Channel's tunnel (Chunnel)
1st - Hissène Habré of Chad flees to Cameroon
1st - Iraq accepts Bush's offer for talks
1st - Lithuania, Estonia & Latvia hold their 1st joint session
1st - NY Knicks Patrick Ewing scores 50 points beating Charlotte 113-96
2nd - 1st parlimentary election in newly reunified Germany
2nd - 1st time 12 people in space
2nd - 79th Davis Cup: USA beats Australia in St Petersburg (3-2)
2nd - Beth Daniel/Davis Love wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic
2nd - US 69th manned space mission STS 35 (Columbia 11) launches into orbit
3rd - NL batting champ Willie McGee signs as a free agent with SF Giants
4th - Due to Persian Gulf crisis gas hits $1.60 per gallon price in NYC
4th - Iraq announces it will release all 3,300 Soviet hostages
5th - Blue Jays trade F McGriff & T Fernandez to SD for R Alomar & J Carter
5th - Former Noriega aide Luis del Cid pleads guilty
5th - Salman Rushdie, author, ordered to death by Iran for blasphemy, appears in public for 1st time in 2 years
6th - NHL grants conditional membership to Tampa Bay Lightning
6th - Saddam anounces release of all foriegn hostages
6th - Shoeless Joe Jackson's signature is sold for $23,100
7th - Iraqi parliment endorses Saddam's decision to free hostages
7th - Ted Turner & Jane Fonda announce their engagement
8th - Galileo Earth-1 Flyby
8th - Indians agree to a lease new ballpark in Gateway (Jacobs Field)
9th - Betsy King wins Itoman LPGA World Match Play Golf Championship
9th - Gunda Niemann skates ladies world record 3k ladies (4:10.80)
9th - Houston scores most points against Cleveland, Oilers 58, Browns 14
9th - Lech Walesa wins presidental election in Poland
9th - NFL NY Giant Otis Anderson becomes 8th to rush for 10,000th yard
10th - Hindu-Muslim rebellion in Hyderabad-Aligargh India, 140 die
10th - Soyuz TM-10 lands
10th - Space Shuttle STS 35 (Columbia 11) lands
11th - 13 die in 83 vehicle accident in Chattanooga Tn I-75, due to fog
11th - US 69th manned space mission STS 35 (Columbia 11) returns from space
12th - US accuses Iraq of dragging its feet on dates for talks
12th - US ambassador to Kuwait, Nathaniel Howell leaves Kuwait
13th - "Peter Pan" opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC for 45 performances
13th - Heavy earthquake strikes Sicily, 18 die
13th - Pres De Klerk of S Afr meets with Mandela to talk of end of apartheid
14th - Louis Jordan's revue "Five Guys Named Moe," premieres in London
14th - Right to Die case permits Nancy Cruzan to have her feeding tube removed, she dies 12 days later
15th - Rocker Rod Stewart marries super model Rachel Hunter
16th - Jean-Bertrand Aristide elected pres of Haiti
16th - KUSW, Salt Lake City Utah, final shortwave radio transmissions
16th - Rev Jean Betrand Aristide elected president of Haiti
17th - KTBN, Salt Lake City Utah, begins shortwave radio transmissions
18th - NL releases short list of teams for 1993 NL expansion
18th - NL announces Buffalo, Denver, Miami, Orlando, Tampa-St Petersburg, & Wash DC as 6 finalist for 1993 expansion (Miami & Denver win)
20th - Pentagon warns Saddam that US air power is ready to attack on 1/15
20th - Robert F X Sillerman purchases WAFL NY-NJ Knights for $11 million
20th - Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze resigns
21st - Steve & Mark Waugh complete 464* partnership for NSW v WA
22nd - Iraq announces it will never give up Kuwait
22nd - Israeli ferry capsizes killing 21 US servicemen
22nd - Lech Walesa sworn in as Poland's 1st popularly elected president
23rd - "Lettice & Lovage" closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 284 perfs
23rd - Slovenians vote to secede from Yugoslavia
24th - Expos trade Tim Raines to White Sox for Ivan Calderon & Barry Jones
24th - Saddam says Israel will be Iraq's 1st target
25th - "Godfather III" premieres
25th - The first successful trial run of the system which would become the World Wide Web.
26th - Garry Kasparov beats Antatoly Karpov to retain chess championship
26th - Reggie Williams becomes 1st GM of WLAF's NY-NJ Knights
26th - Senior Professional Baseball Association folds
28th - 2 die in a NYC subway accident
28th - Blockbuster Bowl 1: Florida State beats Penn State, 24-17
29th - Olympic gymnist Mary Lou Retton weds Shannon Kelley
30th - "Miser" closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC after 93 performances
30th - 11th United Negro College Fund raises $10,000,000
31st - Iraq begins a military draft of 17 year olds
31st - Sci-Fi Channel on cable TV begins transmitting
31st - United Somali Congress seizes Presidential Palace