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Random Christmas Memories
Shaking up the snow globe of past holiday moments
One of my December prompts for my 30-day writing challenge was:
15. A special memory that is random about the holiday season?
But when I try to think of just one, it’s hard. For some reason, I am feeling fragments, like a scene in a Christmas memory snow globe…
Christmas at the mall: My first job was when I was a teenager. I worked at JCPenney at what was at the time (the early 90s) a bright beautiful triple-decker mall. Working at the mall at Christmas was both exciting and hellish.
We were ten times as busy as usual. People were buying any old crap, and piles of it. Stuff we previously couldn’t give away was flying off the shelves. Men especially would buy literally anything we suggested, a desperate glazed look in their eyes. We worked on commission in those days so our paychecks were fat at Christmas. (Unfortunately, a lot of returns after Christmas would put a dent in that!) But I really loved the buzz of it all.
I even weirdly enjoyed the hassle of having to park in a designated parking lot (that was more of a dirt/mud field) down the road during the festive season. There were ways to game the system and try not to get caught, like parking in the Sears parking lot if there were spaces…
