The Legend of Saint Nicholas

The legend of Saint Nicholas is the true story of Bishop Nicholas of Myra, who was born in the village of Patara in what is now modern day Turkey. Nicholas was born around 300 AD, to wealthy parents who nurtured him with devout Christian values. His parents perished in an epidemic while he was still young, and Nicholas spent the rest of his life, and his inheritance, helping others. His devotion to the church and his faith was strongl His good deeds were mostly performed secretly and he expected nothing in return.

One of the customs of the time was that a father must offer something of value, a dowry, to prospective suitors of his daughter. Without this dowry, the daughter could not marry and would be sold into slavery. One father had three daughters and was too poor to provide proper dowries for his children. On three seperate occasions, bags of gold were thrown through open windows of their home and are said to have landed in the stockings and shoes set by the fireplace to dry. Our custom of hanging stockings "by the chimney with care" has evolved from this legend.

During one of his many pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Bishop Nicholas was returning by ship when they encountered a fierce storm. As the sailors endured the storm in terror, Bishop Nicholas calmly prayed for their safety. When the storm suddenly ceased and the waters became calm, the sailors felt that Bishop Nicholas had saved their lives. Because of this, he became the patron saint of sailors.

When he died on December 6 343 AD, he was buried at his cathedral in Myra. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, known as Saint Nicholas Day. This day was celebrated throughout Europe and Asia, with each country adding its own interpretation and customs.

When the Dutch emigrated to the United States and settled in the colony of New Amserdam, which became New York, this custom for celebrating the feast of Saint Nicholas came with them. Their name of Sinter Klass soon became Santa Claus here in America.

After the Reformation, German Protestants encouraged more direction toward the worship of the Christ Child as a giver of gifts on his own feast day, which was December 25. When the tradition of Nicholas continued, it became included with Christmas.

Due to unreliable documentation of the events of Nicholas' life, Pope Paul VI ordered that the feast of Saint Nicholas be stricken from the Roman Catholic calendar in 1969. Saint Nicholas is still revered as the patron saint of little children and sailors.

My E-bay sales are not going well at all. I have one watch on the Reds wallpaper border, and that's about it. And I think I have created a monster with my oldest grandson.

Andrew is 9. He's the one who gave me the nickname of Gramcracker, while we were playing pool in the basement one Sunday afternoon. And since he's 9, he wants all the new electronics, and is always looking for ways to make money. He swiped on the labels off my Maxwell house coffee cans so he could check to see if we won. (Of course, we did not.)

So when the family was over yesterday for our weekly meal time together, I made the mistake of telling Andrew about the E-bay sales. That perked up his interest real quick, and we looked in the storage area for treasures to sell. The biggest problem was that the other four grandkids, Joey, Matthew, Maddie and Jacob, joined in the search. They were all up in our storage area going through everything! Andrew is trying a ceramic Nativity scene that hasn't been used in years, Matthew found an old hat, and Maddie, Joey, and Jacob lost interest and went to do something else.

I let Andrew take the photos for the ad, since he's been using my digital camera since he was about 4 and is pretty good. The problem was he took so many "to get it just right" that it took 2 hours to get the photo, and another 15 minutes or so to post it, not counting the hour it took for him to find the exact thing he wanted. So far we've got 2 hours or so in this project, and, at an hourly rate, we've already probably lost money.

But it's another memory I hope he'll remember.

I want to update you all about my e-bay experiences. Nothing has sold yet, but one person is "watching" one of my items. Don't know how long a "watch" lasts, since I'm new to this, but it is fun.

I also found a unique Christmas present for my son while I was searching around. My son is a construction superintendent, and also builds things for around the house, and even for me, once in awhile. I found the blue prints of old Crosley Field, the Red's original ball park, so I put in a bid. I originally thought my husband would like them, since he used to live in the neighborhood where Crosley Field was located. But then I realized he wouldn't know how to read a blueprint with a map. In fact, maps give him much more grief than results most of the time. So I figure my son would enjoy and realize what they mean.

It's a sad day in Cincinnati. The Old Lefthander, Joe Nuxall, passed away last night, after fighting health concerns for the past several years. He is a Cincinnati icon, the youngest play to ever play professional baseball, starting when he was 15 years old. It was during the war, and was recruited because of a lack of players, started as a pitcher on June 10, 1944. He retired from baseball in 1966 with a record of 130-109. In 1967 he began a broadcast career with the Reds, and teamed with Marty Brennaman in 1974. The two of them were Reds baseball, and in our family we listened to them on the radio and watched the game on TV with the sound turned off. No one could personalize the game like Marty and Joe, and summer will not be the same without his voice from the booth.

He will be greatly missed.

I did it!

I listed 4 items on E-bay, and it was sooooo easy. I now have for sale at the E-bay auction site 1 five piece place setting of Jewel Tea China, 1 Jewel Tea China mixing bowl, 1 book by JD Robb, and 2 rolls of Cincinnati Red wallpaper border, never used.

I already had an account set up, and included Pay Pal, but if you go on the site it only takes a few clicks and they walk you right through it. I check quite often to see what is selling on E-bay, bacause it sounds like fun, but have never got the nerve up to actually try it. Of course, if my stuff doesn't sell in 7 days, I may have a completely different outlook on it

I just heard a health update on Joe Nuxall. He is still in the hospital and is going to have a pacemaker put in. Everybody send him good wishes. He's a good guy.

Today is typical Cincinnati dreary, rainy, misty, cloudy, but warmer than one would expect for November in the midwest. Actually, the latest weather here would make you really believe in global warming. This summmer we had three months of 90 degree heat, with no rain. In my neighborhood, some of the die hards watered there lawns (like my neighbor across the street), some did nothing, and then there were those like me who watered when it started feeling crunchy. If the grandkids wanted to play in the water sprinkler, it was in the front yard! That way I didn't feel too guilty for wasting the water on the lawn, I was helping the little ones get cool and have some fun.

My task for today is to finally try to sell some stuff on E-bay. When my mom passed away, I ended up with more dishes, china, and lots of junk that is taking up all my valuable storage space. I am going to bite the bullet and dive right in to the auction scene. What I'm going to try first is some china, sold old 78 rpm records, a Bicentennial radio gadget, and some old advertising signs. Wish me luck.

I could use some tips from anyone who has been doing this for awhile and understands their way around. Send me your helpful hints and we can share.

Hello to all my fellow bommers!

Through this site I hope to connect with the greatest group of people in the world, those of us who are considered "Baby Boomers". Now that can cover a lot of folks, but join in and share what you're doing today, what you did yesterday, or what you did many yesterdays ago.

What do you remember?

What would you like to forget?

What do you wish you could remember, especially if it only happened a couple of days ago!

(We all know that feeling, right?)

Today my task to do was to vote for Joe Nuxall for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I just heard Willie Cunningham (willie@700wlw.com) talking with Joe's son about Joe's latest health set back. Joe is in the hospital with a pnuemonia flair up, has been feeling tired lately, but hopes to be better soon. Wouldn't it just perk him up to know that he would be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. You can vote at www.baseballhalloffame.org. Vote every day!!!

I also had the task today of entertaining my little six year old grandson, Joey. He got sick at school yesterday and didn't feel like going today, so he's at grandma's house, bored silly but can't figure out what to do. I've suggested the computer, the Play Station, Gameboy, painting, collecting leaves for a collage, taking a walk, gluing shells that he brought me back from his camping trip....nothing works. So far it's just been watching Sponge Bob or Scooby. I guess he wants to save the good stuff for another day.