Monday Moaning or Monday Marveling? 12/16/24 “Marvelous Bells”

I’m marveling this Monday morning!

A couple of months ago, as I was aimlessly meandering through my Savannah Historic District neighborhood, minding my own business and thinking about who knows what, I came across one of those Free Little Libraries. Do you have them where you live? I love them! The Universe speaks to me through them!

This is my routine when I see one.

I stop. Gather my wits (which sometimes takes a while). And then sorta yell (if there are no mental health professionals such as my therapist Rubi lurking nearby):

“Okay, Universe, here we are again! What do you want me to read this time?!”

Well, this time it was “Jingle Bells: How the Holiday Classic Came to Be.”

Even though I had never heard of it, I was THRILLED when I saw the book’s cover. (It doesn’t take much to thrill me.) Wouldn’t you be thrilled? No, you probably wouldn’t be. So let me explain. Have you had your morning coffee?

Savannah has twenty-two uniquely beautiful squares in the Historic District (more in other parts of the city). And one of HR’s and my favorites is Troup Square near us.

I have walked through Troup a zillion times. I like the quirky globe in the center.

But the THRILL came from remembering this historical marker in the square near the Unitarian Universalist Church …

So it seems that James Lord Piedmont, music director of the church in the 1880’s, composed “Jingle Bells“!

Well, after the Universe graciously presented the book to me, I put it away in my bedroom closet. Wouldn’t you? No? Here’s why I did: Robert and I have this tradition of reading several holiday books during November/December. I wanted to wait till Christmas was approaching to find out about “Jingle Bells.”

I pulled it out yesterday, harassed Robert until he agreed to accompany the book and me to Troup Square to Holiday Read.

We sat on a bench facing the Unitarian Church …

… and I ardently read to a mesmerized HR the fictionalized account of Pierpont’s birthing “Jingle Bells.” (Eliciting only a handful of pitiful stares from Sunday afternoon passersby wondering why that old man was excitedly reading a children’s book to that obviously entranced non-child sitting next to him.)

[Perhaps I made up the “mesmerized” and “entranced” parts.]

But the book really is fun, especially the scene during Pierpont’s introducing his new song at the church’s Christmas concert. At the “Dashing through the snow” line, the children of the church throw up clouds of white feathers to symbolize snow (since warm Savannah rarely sees the real thing).

So There. That’s why I’m marveling this Monday morn.