My diary - December 8-10, 1972
- Susan Fisch Good
- Oct 31
- 2 min read
December 8, 1972 Fri.
Dear Flowers:
No school cause today is Purisima. We went to church. I worked on my Spanish report. Guess what we put up the tree! & everything! Took all afternoon. I finally finished my Spanish report (I didnt read the whole book. It had a summary at the beginning so…) Hingst came over with a miner. Dad showed a foot-ball movie. I’m thinking of cutting my hair short. We’ll see.
BYE!!!
Note:
I had never had short hair before, so this was a big decision!
December 8th marks the end of La Purísima, which was from November 28th to December 8th. It marks the official start of the Christmas holidays.
Mom always loved to get our home decorated for the holidays. We put up a silver tree with a multicolored spotlight that rotated, changing the tree's color. We had special ornaments from all over the world. My favorite was a set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from Colombia.
Nicaragua doesn't grow traditional pine Christmas trees. Many people had big branches from the madroño trees (arbustus trees) decorated with cotton balls, white flowers, and ornaments.
December 9, 1972 Sat.
Dear Flowers:
I started a new book “Regency Buck.” Outlined on history. Simone & Pat came over & we tried to work on Science but it was impossible. We talked. Simmone left 1st Pat & I read a teen mag. I did my Xmas cards & wrote Missy a letter. I read P.E. once. Outlined history some more. 7 pages to go.
BYE!!!
Note: I always loved addressing Christmas cards and thinking of the people I was sending them to.
Regency Buck was a book by Georgette Heyer about a young brother and sister whose father died, and they travel to London to meet their guardian, Lord Worth. He turns out to be close to their age and not happy to see them, with the feeling being mutual. The story has many complications and adventures.
December 10, 1972 Sun.
Dear Flowers:
We went to church & then to Mas por Menos. Dad took us to lunch to “El Colises to celebrate Daves birthday. After lunch we stopped at the polo ground where a group of Americans were shoting of rockets. Mr. Hingst came over with David. We played Hide & go Seek game. I have to finish History & study P.E. Wish me luck on Passing P.E. This next 5 days will be the worst! Wish me LUCK!!
BYE!!!
Note: I don’t remember the restaurant, but it was fun celebrating David’s birthday a few days late.
Más por Menos (More for Less) was a store that Mom enjoyed visiting.
I don’t remember why a written P.E. test was given, but maybe one of my former classmates will remember.
P.E. was always one of my most dreaded classes, as I was not good at sports, except for swimming and tennis, which weren’t offered.
I was foreshadowing the worst days to come. Grateful that we don’t know the future ahead of time!
In Soccer, they always put me in "fullback" defense, as it involved the least amount of running around and getting winded. Goalies stand around a lot, but they didn't want me there, I was so skinny, the ball would fly right past me. 😑
Mas Por Menos was the main grocery chain in C.R., so was it the same there? If so, I wonder if it was the same owner?
In Bogotá, we always had a real Xmas tree, as several types of conifers are native to the area. They had practically no scent tho, like typical stateside Firs grown for the purpose. I have a theory that cool, high altitudes may attenuate our ability to smell; I don't remember any particular smells in Bogotá, but I do remember in San José, the pleasant floral odors, and from the city market and especially the roasted candied peanut vendors on the street!
And as mentioned before, Bogotá's high altitude ensured that P.E. was my worst…
Oh, Susan, we had that same (fairly abominable! ) tree with the rotating color wheel to light it up. It was quite an innovation on Christmas decorating, wasn’t it? I always yearned for a real tree with it’s glorious scent. P.E. Was a misery for lots of people, I think; I was simply awful at everything required and developed coping behaviors to get through it. One was, during softball, to stand so far in the outfield that no one could possibly hit the ball to me!