An Old Christmas favorite

[Murph]

When you heard this on AFN, you knew it was Christmas in Japan:


Taken from the Yamato HS website:
CHRISTMAS IN THE PADDIES
(with all the usual apologies!)


'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
The cold would awaken the sleepiest mouse.

The stockings were hung by the space heater with care
In hopes that St. Nick-san soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds
While visions of Toyland danced in their heads.

And I in my blanket, with the heat turned on HIGH
Had just settled down ….Oyasumi nasai!

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter ….
Dad was checking the oil drums, and Mad as a Hatter!

I threw open the window, and peered through the plastic,
"Gomen nasai, darling…. Don't do anything drastic!"

(I'd forgotten to order some of the stuff ….
It looked as though Christmas would be kind of rough!)

The moon on the breast of the gravel and snow
Gave the luster of midday to the compound below.

When what to my wondering eyes did appear
But a chisai sleigh and eight tiny reindeer ….

With a little old honcho so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than U-2s his coursers they came
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name ….

"Now Doozo, now Daijoob, now Chotto and Matte ….
On Soba, on Sushi, on Ah So and Deska!"

(Because of the Union, I suppose, over here
He probably employs Japanese reindeer!)

And then in a twinkling he came in the door
And opened his furoshiki and jumped on the floor.

Dozens of packages, gifts of all sizes ….
Just what the kids wanted, plus extra surprises !

I was so happy, I wanted to squeeze him ….
Christmas would be merry, even though we were freezin.

"Oh, thank you!" I said , "Your such an old dear,
Domo arigato, as we say over here !"

But how did you ever find this old place ?
We worried that maybe you just went "ON BASE!"

His eyes, how the twinkled …. "Now don't ever tell ….
But I don't go by rank , or key personnel!"

"And what did you bring ME ? " I wanted to know, too.
He shook when he laughed, like a bowl of tofu.

"Well, you two thousand pounders sure need quite a lot,
But for YOU, gal, its SOMETHING SPECIAL I've got!

Its much too big to put under the tree,
So look out in the yard …. and you will see ….

To keep peace in the family, you know what I mean,
YOUR gift is a drum full of kerosene!

Now, I'd better be off , for I'm on TDY ….
And it's quite a trip back to the good old ZI !

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they flew like the thrust of a missile,

But I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,
"KURISUMASU OMEDETOO TO EACH TACHI - ITE !"


This Christmas verse was written in December 1960 by My father Charles E. Skidmore Jr. who at that time was the Managing editor for the Tachikawa A.F.B. newspaper the "Marauder". It was printed in the base paper sometime that month. Mike Skidmore - Broken Arrow Oklahoma. mskids001@aol.com