Christmas is coming and bringing back memories.

         Recently a granddaughter asked me what was my most memorable Christmas dinner.

         Without a doubt, it was the day I had one stale ham sandwich for my dinner.

         My best Christmas feast was in Bangkok at the Oriental Hotel. Let me tell you these stories.

         My father’s first car was a Ford New Beauty.

         It was known in the family as ‘Airtight Annie’.

         It was one of those old black cars with a battery on the running board and a crank handle to start it. The petrol tank was under the front seat and was gravity-fed.

         When I was a child my parents decided to spend our Christmas holidays in Whitehall, just out of Cambridge, New Zealand.

         Dad’s sister Winfred and her husband Nick Winter was my father’s best friend. The Winters had a farm at Whitehall.

         Dad decided to take the shortest route, a shingle road between Napier and Taihape.

         After an eventual start, we reached the rabbit barrier bridge over the river at Kuripapango, and then things started to deteriorate.

         Our gravity-fed petrol tank did not have enough fuel to climb the next hill. Father using his handbrake backed down and decided we would return home and take a different route – the long route via Bulls.

         But nothing is as simple as that. We found we couldn’t get out of the valley.  The road out was also too steep. Once again Father tried to turn the car around and back up the hill. The road was very narrow and we got stuck sideways with a dead engine. There was a cliff on one side and a big drop on the other.

         It was getting dark by this time so we bedded down for the night in the car. Thank goodness there was no other traffic on the road as they couldn’t have passed us.

         Early next morning Mother guarded the car while Father and I set out walking towards a distant homestead with an empty petrol tin.

         In that isolated area, beside the road, I found a half-crown coin. As it was Christmas Father let me keep it. That was equivalent to a month’s pocket money.

         We found a homestead, told our story and two farm hands came to our aid. We managed to push the car around, put in a can of petrol, and back up the hill.

         That was Christmas day. Our Christmas dinner that day was our leftover ham sandwiches.

         We got home, cleaned up, slept well, and set out for Whitehall on the long route.

         During the Second World War, this road was widened and sealed to assist the army.

         At that time we were half expecting a Japanese invasion as their armies swept South.  

         Our main defense was an army unit stationed in the middle of the North Island, at Waiouru.

         We didn’t know where the Japanese proposed to land so the tactic was the Home Guard was supposed to slow the invaders until the army arrived.

        

One of the most memorable meals occurred many years later when I was working in Thailand.  My wife Joyce,  was asked to edit a family planning book for the Government of Indonesia.

         It had been badly translated and it was a difficult task to correct the English language edition.

         She was well paid for this job and when it was completed to celebrate took me, daughter Robyn and Son-in-law Charles to the best hotel in Bangkok for a special New Year meal – and what a feast that was.

         I remember the huge Teak Christmas bells hanging up as we walked into the Oriental Hotel. In the dining room, there were three large smorgasbords – one Asian, one Thai, and a European board crammed with delicious food.

         Times have changed today, many families now enjoy BYO meals at Christmas.  People now tend to bring a course to share with others at this special dinner – making much less work for the host.

         Roll on Christmas dinner – a treat I am looking forward to, and may you be so lucky.

Geoffrey Moss(mossassociates.co.NZ.)

“Never forget it’s more of a blessing to give than to receive.”

Source : ‘Rolling On’ available online FREE from our website.