Christmas of 1981 in Athens, Greece. I was 15. Father had died 3 years ago from heart attack at 42. His last words to my mother: "Educate the kids". She did her best, given that my grandfather was old fashioned and had stopped her from going to school after she became twelve, although she was among the smartest in her class. That Christmas she had bought me the brand new then Sinclair ZX81 personal computer. We were…
What a great story, the perfect kind of HN post. Did Sinclair advertise in Greek... Or did your Grandma speak enough English to figure out what to buy?
There definitely were ads for spectrums in Greece back then [1] but if I were to guess they were coming from local distributors rather than Sinclair.
Jews have contributed significantly to what is recognizable today as Christmas time. Many catchy classic Christmas songs were written by Jewish songwriters.
Bob Dylan has Jewish heritage as well, although I don't recall him writing any Christmas songs.
Didn't he go through a phase in the 80s in which he was super into Christianity?
One year it was just my parents and I for Christmas. None of us are that big on elaborate gift giving, we just want to see each other. Unknowingly we had all purchased some form of booze for one another, so we spent the evening chatting with libations by the fire, it was wonderful :)
Today is a day made for celebrating the birth of Christ. Later, a tradition of giving gifts and spending time with family. I pray God blesses you in each of these things.
If anyone here is unfamiliar with what Christmas is, this page has links explaining the birth of Christ and why it’s one of history’s greatest events:
I'm largely of the "hell is other people" mindset around Christmas, from the overtly fascist elderly relatives to the incomprehensible demands of immediate family. I would love just one Christmas like that!
I think people tend to fascism as they age, the more they've done and seen and accumulated, the more conservative they get and the more their personal experience of the world must be maintained, protected. Talk to them about their youth, when they were wild and rebellious. Find out what trouble they caused. Remind them, and it just might crack the encrusted exterior a little bit.
That's not strictly true. I suspect those that follow Orthodox and Ultra Orthodox Judaism are exclusive. However, those that follow Reform Judaism and the Conservative Movement support conversion to Judaism, so you are invited.
I'm largely of the "hell is other people" mindset around Christmas, from the overtly fascist elderly relatives to the incomprehensible demands of immediate family. I would love just one Christmas like that!
I think people tend to fascism as they age, the more they've done and seen and accumulated, the more conservative they get and the more their personal experience of the world must be maintained, protected. Talk to them about their youth, when they were wild and rebellious. Find out what trouble they caused. Remind them, and it just might crack the encrusted exterior a little bit.
See, i believe this is generally trueish for the current moment, has it always been true though? For example, I've already passed the time in which my father _insisted_ I would become conservative and have very much not developed anything like the conservative values of modern America. Though, maybe it's just that conservatism has drastically changed since the 70s. For instance, i certainly have become less insistent on things like UBI and more realistic about single payer Healthcare, but i have not developed disdain for illegal immigrants, the desire to force birth, anti-gay marriage, anti-trans, etc. Were these perquisites to be conservative in the 70s? I'd say im fiscally slightly left, but socially i simply cannot understand the rights positions, it just sounds like hater shit to me
I'm Jewish, so all my Christmas's growing up were kinda the same. Sleep in, have brunch, wander over to my neighbor's house around noon to see what kind of loot they got and help them play with their new toys. Sometimes we'd go out for Chinese food and a movie. But my favorite was Christmas 1999. My girlfriend was out of town with her family and there was no reason to go home to mine, so I was alone (my roommates wer…
Jews have contributed significantly to what is recognizable today as Christmas time. Many catchy classic Christmas songs were written by Jewish songwriters.
Christmas '98, my mom went to the local computer tech and bought me the 166mhz MMX CPU. I was stoked (but admittedly a little bit frustrated it wasn't the 233mhz). As silly as this seems, the black lacquered laminate (instead of the gray ceramic on my 133mhz or 100mhz or whatever I had) made me feel like I went from a nova to a corvette. I fondly remember getting excited about that kind of stuff. Also that same year, my first intro to 3D, playing motocross madness with my highschool friend on my (or probably his) new voodoo 3DFX card. It was magical.