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“Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.” ― G.K. Chesterton,
I’ve posted this personal story for several years.
“A Child wandered in on some bums where they hid.” Old City Bar -Trans Siberian Orchestra
The quote is from the song “In an Old City Bar,” which is linked to at the bottom of the post. You may want to play it as you read.
True Confession: My favorite Christmas music is by the Trans Siberian Orchestra, which will probably cause some out there to claim, “Ah ha! I knew she was a heretic.” I have seen them in person twice, one time with Deb. Oddly, I was in tears listening to one of their songs, “In an Old City Bar.” Usually, that means I need to think. And then I remembered…
It was our second year of marriage, and we were living on the Navajo Indian Reservation. We would not be able to go home to the Boston area for Christmas. I was pretty sad since it would be the first Christmas away from my extended family. Christmas was a big deal at my house: food, games, and presents. My father would wrap his gifts for us, on purpose, in the worst possible way. Torn paper bags, string, ripped wrapping paper, glue, and rubber bands. We would laugh hard; his were the loudest and longest of all. In fact, the presents we looked for the hardest were Dad’s crazily wrapped presents.
I was pleased that we decided to spend Christmas in a little town called Ouray in Colorado. It would provide a distraction. Back then, Ouray was small, nestled in the mountains. Its fortunes have since changed, and it is now a bustling and trendy town. It was a relatively long drive from Gallup, New Mexico. We drove north past Shiprock and through the mountains surrounding Telluride. It was snowing quite heavily, and we were forced to put on chains, or the police would not let us into the dangerous passes. It was a bit scary.
When we arrived, the little town was deserted. We tried to check into our cabin, but the people who ran it had gone away. They left a note with a key on the door of the cabin, along with some firewood, and said to slip the check under the front door of their house when we left. We were totally alone. In fact, we would never meet our hosts and have often remarked about their trust in their unknown guests.
We decided to try to find something to eat, but everything was shut down except for a bar with a neon light that said “Open.” In we tromped, cold and tired. This was not some trendy watering hole. It was a plain old bar. The bartender said he could rustle up a burger for us, and down we plopped. I was feeling a little sorry for myself. I had survived a treacherous car drive and was now sitting in an old bar, damp and tired, sipping a mediocre glass of wine with a bunch of drunks who probably got tossed out by their families.
And he (the Child) asked did we know
That outside in the snow
That someone was lost
Outside our door
As I looked around, we realized that we were the only couple of the dozen or so people in the bar. Everyone else was alone. Faces were bent over their drinks. Most of them looked sad and tired. Several mountain men, kind of Duck Dynastyesque, had long beards, flannel shirts, and jeans.
The bartender turned
and said, not that I care
But how would you know this?
The child said I noticed
If one could be home,
they’d be already there
Then, a man stood up. He looked like a businessman, more well-dressed than all of us. He sat down at the piano. I do not think this was expected because the bartender looked slightly rattled. To our surprise, the man began to play Christmas carols, and he played them well. People began to sing along as time passed, including the guys whose faces had been hunched over their beer mugs. As they sang, they started to look around. As we caught each other’s eyes, we nodded and smiled slightly. Even the bartender was singing quietly.
Oh, was I mad at myself! I realized that the people in the bar were lonely and sad while I was sitting around, feeling sorry for myself. I was judging them instead of loving them. Jesus not only loved them; He understood them. He was born in a cave, amongst the animals, to a teenage mother who was far from her home when she should have had the comfort of her family as she labored. Instead, it was only Joseph who most likely was not adept at birthing babies since that was often left up to the women. Can you imagine the judgment of those who knew about this woman giving birth in a cave, of all places?
We began to leave at the bar after we sang “Silent Night.” The quiet sounds of “Merry Christmas” were heard. There were even a few pats on the back. Two thousand years later, the Child still brought people together in very strange places.
The following day, the sun came out, and we drove to a cross-country ski area. The snow was too deep to ski easily. We were all alone; not another person could be seen or heard. It was so quiet that it almost hurt our ears. I thought about the quiet of a cave from which an explosion came, which was louder than a nuclear bomb. It would forever change the landscape of this world. The drunk in the bar meant as much to this Child as the greatest of kings. In fact, I think He may feel even closer to them than to the privileged and arrogant.
So, as my kids grow up and leave home, I plan to find some places where outcast and alone people spend Christmas Eve. Do not be surprised to see a woman with cute shoes sipping a glass of mediocre wine in a run-down bar on Christmas Eve. This time, however, she will have a sack with some presents to give to them. As she does, she plans to let them know that there is a Child who cares for them and knows what it is like to be in a strange place on Christmas Eve.
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🙂
Thanks and Merry Christmas.
Like theTrans Siberian Orchestra Christmas music too, listened to Old City
Bar a couple times this season. Tears too.
Thanks for your story about Christmas past and your plans for Christmas to come.
“I watched the all night TV show
In the all night bar
I drove all the people home
I was the one with the car”
https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=Bruce+Cockburn+-+The+Coldest+Night+Of+The+Year&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Another bar story put to song … (no comparison to your story, Dee, but, nevertheless … the Coldest Night of the Year… Bruce Cockburn)
“It’s pale in here and the floorboards creak,
The ceiling reaches down
Started out a big, bright city, now it’s a small town
Every one you never wanted to run into again
Is sitting at this bar next to each other
“We all get lonely
There’s no way around it…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgHyxXGjyEc
And one more bar memory … Trampled by Turtles.
‘with cute shoes’
(smile)
your writing is exquisite in its pathos and its joy, thanks for sharing this with us today!
Good Christmas to all here! Peace and good will and a merry tune or two, a hot meal, a good nap, and many blessings for a happy new year to come. Oh, the mercy of the Christ Child! 🙂
Merry Christmas to all of you ab=nd your loved ones.
dee,
I read. I listened. I wept.
Merry Christmas, Dee
Having a Christmas alone this year, well with the cat! COVID hit one side of the family hard after Thanksgiving, so I won’t be seeing them and the rest are out of state. I do have a Christmas Sunday sermon to translate tomorrow (pastor is out with COVID), so that will be a nice distraction for today. Thanks for the sing/lyrics. There is always someone who can use a message of Christmas love and kindness!
Dee–we spent many Christmases in the Four Corners. We lived between Farmington and Bloomfield. Seeing Shiprock against the setting sun as we drove to the luminaria display at the college was a highlight of Christmas. Last night we had homemade enchiladas, and put out our own luminarias. We did find one house in town here in the Ozarks with the plastic electric ones on display. I have pinon I saved in my freezer, mailed by my kids, in a jar of water on the table to make the house smell like a Four Corners Christmas. And today a good friend gave me a bracelet in the Navajo style. Your article brought back many memories for me, as we honeymooned there in Durango, and Ouray has been a fave of mine since I was a teen. Have you ever done the jeep trails? Fantastic if you a proficient 4 wheel drive driver.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Dee and Todd, and all other TWBW community!
In other news, JWST launched successfully this morning. Go Webb!
Linn,
Merry Christmas, Linn
Max,
Thanks, Max! The sermon is almost translated. I also asked myself what I really wanted for Christmas dinner, and I went to a fast food place for a cheeseburger! I rarely eat them these days (they make my doctor frown) but it’s Christmas, after all!
🙂
Thank you, Dee!
I was alone for Christmas and looked for a church service to attend on Christmas Eve. I found several services advertised as “Family Christmas.”
So nice to know I’m not welcome since I have no family.
So glad The Lord doesn’t see things the same way.
Much of the church just flat disgusts me.
Phoenix–I am so sorry you were offended by the phrase “family Christmas.” I can assure you that you would have been very welcome and included in our neck of the woods, since all that phrase means is that the service will be short and focused on Christmas. Many churches seem to want to use that time to try and rope in the folks that only attend Christmas and Easter, so they do a heavy dose of Good Friday stuff and are conversion focused. Family Christmas here just means a service shortened so that antsy kids have a chance to behave long enough not to drive everyone over 10 insane, and that it will be strictly a celebration of the birth of Christ. It doesn’t mean for “families” only (you are a family of one if you are single) nor would you be excluded at all. Just that if you want a really looooonnnnnggggg formal service you might not want the “family service.”
Sometimes our “Christianese” means we inadvertently put both feet in our mouth up to our elbows. Please accept my apology on their behalf.
It’s a bad use of the phrase.
I don’t know how all churches use it, and churches certainly are bigoted in favor of nuclear families. In my area, “family service” means “fair warning, expect noisy children.” People who want to hear a pin drop during prayers and sermon will not be happy at the family service. A lot of adults really can’t stand being around children, even if the kids behave well.
If a church is going to call something a family service, it should have another service or two.
Also in my area, a lot of services—especially services where young children were expected—got canceled at the last minute, due to rapid spread of the omicron variant. We stayed home.
Perhaps the one question that will unify Wartburgers the world over is: Can England, 4 second-innings wickets down and in complete disarray in every conceivable sense, scrape together the 51 runs needed to make Australia bat again? Or will the hosts finally put to bed an innings victory?
We’ll know in (at the time of writing) about 9 hours’ time!
Nick Bulbeck,
Even if they lose, they need only open their newest edition of Scribsher to translate defeat into victory.
And the all important question of who will get the Ashes.
I do note that someone seems intent of putting a large number of first class cricketers into Wikipedia. Two of my distant relatives are in it solely because of their first class cricket careers (neither of them good). It does balance all the American footballers
Thank you for the story!
We are feeling happy that we viewed Christmas eve service and Sunday on-line, since they announced Sun. morning that our pastor tested positive for C0VID in our (mostly) non-mask-wearing church (but he was there Christmas eve).
You also brought back memories of a lovely hike near Ouaray, to Columbine Lake – not so easy to get there (1-car width road to get to trailhead, then hike straight uphill for over 3 miles to the lake). It’s a lovely turquoise color – probably full of mining minerals! Daughter won a school photography prize for her photo of the lake. Anyway, beautiful area and yes, now-trendy town. (link to Alltrails picture below)
https://cdn-assets.alltrails.com/uploads/photo/image/40017996/extra_large_4c0e7022e6befdfb4a99b7413cb9784f.jpg
Thank you for sharing.
I hadn’t seen this, but I’ve always liked Wikipedia.
As I’m sure you’ll know, England lost their last 6 wickets for just 37 runs to lose by an innings. The next step in the whitewash begins on 4th January, when again the two possibilities are England batting first and collapsing to a match-losing low score, and Australia batting first and compiling a match-winning first-innings score.
🙂
The previous comments are from the last time I posted this. Merry Christmas
dee,
Thanks for the re-post. I enjoy reading this story, with music, this time of year. A Wartburg Holiday Tradition with warmth and love.
I have had Old City Bar on repeat for a good portion of the afternoon. Thanks for your story. The song resonates with something deep inside me. I am planning to share a reflection on it for our Christmas Eve service. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Dee and everyone on here. While I am an old-school Calvinist and old-fashioned in my complimentarian leanings, I do appreciate the work done on this site. Keep up the good reporting.
BTW, I am kinda a metal head, so Trans Siberian Orchestra is certainly appreciated. But…. I do think the Carpenters’ Christmas album is the best ever. I also like “December”, by George Winston.
George,
This is the nicest compliment anyone could pay. It warmed my heart. Merry Christmas to you!!!
Dan,
I would love to hear your reflection on it. Is it recorded or do you have a transcript?
Dee,
I have so loved this story and was happy to see that you re-posted it again this year!
Thank you.
. . . that candle people often put in the window on Christmas Eve?
that IS meant for the lost stranger(s) wandering in the cold outside in the darkness . . .
the things we would do in Christ’s Holy Name, given an opportunity (sigh) 🙂
I am also a fan of The Orchestra. So much so that years ago I recorded a version of their Saravejo song. It is the song with the most tracks I ever worked on. It has 16 midi tracks plus 4 live guitar tracks and bass. It is at the end of my playlist of songs. Each year for the last three I have added a new track, including one I just uploaded this week, a version of O Come All Ye Faithful. Here is the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohUwfwU9wa4&list=PLK8B6r21sytxafaUi1DwfFj-qk95kWYliv=ohUwfwU9wa4&list=PLK8B6r21sytxafaUi1DwfFj-qk95kWYli
Ava Aaronson,
You are always so kind. Thank you and Merry Christmas.
They’re on tour: https://www.trans-siberian.com/tour
GBTC:
Ummm….just to clarify….some of the comments on this post are old comments – maybe from the last time this post was posted….the comment of mine that I quoted above is from Sunday, December 26, 2021, and there’s another one of mine dated Tuesday, December 28, 2021.
One of the lines from the song that stood out to me was the phrase:
“Just the wind and the snow Waltzing dreams through the air”
Somehow the phrase “waltzing dreams through the air” seemed so whimsical….
Thank you for adding your comment, Dee. 🙂 I’d noticed the unusual dates and submitted a comment addressed to GBTC before I’d read your comment….
And Merry Christmas to you and all Wartburgers.
christiane,
There are lots of old tv shows with episodes about strangers with nowhere to go wandering into somewhere on Christmas Eve. (I even watched one a little while ago on an old black-and-white show – a western serial with Richard Boone as the main character…. a beautiful story, in it’s own strange way.)
The difference: Dee’s story is true, and she is her with us to tell it every Christmas season. That makes her story beyond special. And she describes it so well …… I don’t need a tv screen to see it.
Nancy2(aka Kevlar),
🙂 Yes.
It’s a wonderful story. Worth sharing again and again.
That is a beautiful story, Dee. So full of repentance and truth and love –the real Spirit of Christmas.
Although each of us is made in the image of God, Jesus spoke in a special way of people on the margins. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute ME?” Jesus in the guise of persecuted Christians. “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes ME.” Jesus in the guise of little children. “In as much as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto ME.” Jesus in the guise of the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned…or strangers.
Have a blessed time tonight wherever you go. And may you minister to Jesus in the guise of one whom society has cast out. And may He receive it as done unto Himself.
Merry Christmas to Dee, Todd and the many Wartburgers who share their thoughts and lives here. You are all precious humans whom God loves!
Bridget,
Thx, God bless you, too.
That is a great story. So glad you re-posted it. I lived in a mountain town long ago for one winter. I can feel the vibe in your story so well.
Being in the Denver area means that I occasionally get a chance to head down toward Ouray. I could never get tired of being down there. Such a beautiful place.
I used to love TSO, but after hearing one or two songs on the radio too much I became, sadly, rather tired of them.
Merry Christmas
Listening to the “Old City Bar” was wonderful.
That.
Merry Christmas everyone. In 2000 I went to Ouray, though I believe I arrived not by car, but by train. My thought after seeing the tiny high elevation town surrounded by tall mountains is that I would not want to try to visit it in the winter. A tourist trap in the summer and a place to get stuck without fresh groceries in the winter. Very pretty and I love the Alpine forest.
I live at 7100 feet and there is snow on the ground. Though we do not have the kind of snow they must get in Ouray. I love where I live but I am not hardcore enough to winter in a place like Ouray.
I thought I recognised the story! I began to get suspicious when I saw a lot of comments about cricket that I didn’t recently add.
England’s Test Cricket fortunes have undergone an astonishing turnaround during the second half of 2022; AWWBA.
Three-foot Narrow-Gauge train on the tracks of the old Colorado Southern?
(i.e. 128 miles of track and not one inch of it on level ground, connecting all those silver-mining towns in the Colorado Rockies.)
How about Lizard Head Pass (10000 plus)?
The pass where one winter EVERY locomotive and snowplow on the Rio Grande Southern (former Colorado Southern) ALL got snowed in and stuck trying to clear that pass? (There’s at least two YouTube Videos on the subject.)
Lizard Head Pass goes from Dolores to Telluride which is even prettier than Ouray (IMO).
Red Mountain Pass goes from Silverton to Ouray.
The narrow gage railroad goes from Durango to Silverton. I have always wanted to take that trip.
I love that part of Colorado. Every road has such amazing beauty.
Afterburne,
Speaking of that train: https://www.foxweather.com/lifestyle/us-polar-express-winter-train-rides
I was in Cherry Creek State Park in 100 degrees (one day) in summer ’93. Coming down from our hotel in Vail was immense grandeur. The best hamburger I’ve ever eaten was at the corner of nothing, in Arizona, in a store that sold serious amounts of hardware.
Another summer I viewed the glass bottomed shrimp fishing cabins on the shore of Chesapeake Bay, stood nose to nose with a Thunderchief in the Mall (Washington DC), rode on a local train with shiny ribbed sides, and happened across a classic car meet in a car park.
I’m a big Mark Twain fan. Then there’s Martha Nussbaum, Esther Lightcap Meek, Charles S Peirce (I just dabble), Dallas Willard, Peter L Berger, countless music makers (not least Creedence) . . .
The same day in the Mall there was a tent celebrating southern Mississippi culture with a family gospel choir singing there.
Originally it connected all those towns – Durango, Rico, Silvertion, Telluride, Ophir, Ouray, Lizard Head Pass The cliffs of Red Mountain pass were too rugged to run a rail grade through, so the RGS had to go AROUND the range, a 172-milt detour to reach all those mining towns.
Line completed in 1891, then in 1893 the bottom fell out of the silver market, all the mines shut down, and the RGS (later D&RGW) struggled on until it finally went belly-up in 1050. That route is still Legendary among both foamers (rail buffs) and model railroaders. Colorado Narrow Gauge is one of the Archetypes of classic American Railroading.
So am I.
Muff Potter,
His scenes on the Mississippi (including non fictional) are those that convince me the very most of all. Alas, I perhaps shan’t see it in person now. I was born by a river (not that size though).