Not Silver Bells — A Silver Lining
A few years back my kids and I decided to write a Christmas ditty about the nouveau riche infesting our Greenwich. There was some promise in “Silver spoons. Silver spoons. It’s Christmastime on the Avenue.” But what we eventually came up with was to the tune of Jingle Bells, and it goes like this:
Riding down “The Ave”
In my big SUV;
Double parking now,
‘Cause all the matters is me.
Pay the highest price,
I don’t really care,
Oh what fun it is to have,
An extra million to spare.
Oh, Dingletown, Dingletown,
Dingle all the way.
Oh what fun it is to ride in
My big Escalade.
Well, the recession has made that song a bit dated. These days, folks, even nouveau riche Greenwich chaps, don’t have “an extra million to spare” – especially after the Madoff mess. (Perhaps there is another song there, “Here comes old Madoff. Here comes old Madoff. Right down Chimney Corner Lane.”)
On Greenwich Avenue, double parking seemingly wasn’t too much of an issue this year because the crowds of shopper were sparser than in Christmases past in downtown Greenwich. (Not so at Stew’s or Wal-Mart or Costco though.)
Gifts seemed fewer this year; Christmas cards less grandiose; house decorations more modest. Maybe it is wishful thinking, but it seemed to me that families were a bit happier this Christmas, and friends a bit warmer.
And maybe that is the silver-lining in the fiscal clouds of gloom overhead – a return to modest living, to the important things of life – family, friends, people. Wouldn’t that be one of the greatest of gifts this holiday season!