1980: The Second Day of Christmas IV, Springfield 2

This is the Christmas when the whole holiday season lost its luster for me. After receiving the Millenium Falcon a year earlier, most gifts afterwards seemed anti-climatic, short of a personal computer; in 1980 those things cost as much as a used car and did very little. However, I think the crummy attitude came more from my age than the loot. By now I was 12 and in seventh grade. The time I think most kids make the awkward transition from big kid to entry-level teenager.

We spent the whole break at our house in Springfield again. The grandparents came over but I don’t recall them staying very long. I’m sure they bailed before New Year’s Eve. Maybe they had plans for a change.

I do know I went to the movies a couple times. The first one I was stoked about, a modernized take on Flash Gordon with Queen doing the soundtrack. It was no Star Wars or Star Trek but it was colorful, bright and really different. I’ve grown to appreciate it more as an adult despite it being a rather weak attempt on the beloved Thirties serial and newspaper strip. The second was flick I saw was Nine to Five with my dad. No idea why we went. I laughed at the obvious jokes: slapstick and swearing. Otherwise, I had little clue about its larger message, I was 12.

What else? I probably had basketball games but I was a second stringer. I usually played in the final minutes as we were losing. St. Agnes wasn’t very strong in sports and we tended to finish 2-? because St. Patrick and St. Cabrini were worse. Hard to believe my school fared badly against other parishes that lacked a gym to practice in.

It was Winter in Central Illinois, I was 12, we didn’t have much money due to my father’s government job, the Reagan recovery needed more time (a frequent litany from his worshippers yet Obama is measured by another standard)…so it’s likely I watched a copious amount of TV to pass this new sensation I would start to experience more often. I call it teenage ennui. Well, maybe someone else penned it. I couldn’t find a source to credit today.

Don’t get me wrong though. Any time away from school was a victory and I wasn’t sad or depressed for two weeks, I just had no idea that getting older was going to be rough. Those older kids at Griffin and Springfield High made it look easy like it was on sitcoms.

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