Traditions

Sometimes traditions that make no sense become the best traditions of all. I have two Uncle Dons and this is about both of them.

One of them is my father's brother. He grew up in the tiny town my grandparents lived in and was the mayor and head of the entire maintenance department along with being the captain of the city softball team. Every year there was a local chicken festival and Uncle Don would start hawking raffle tickets well in advance. He would talk to everyone everywhere about buying a book of tickets. After all, first prize was $500 and the tickets were only a $1.00. Every year I bought a book of tickets and lost. Then a few years back I forgot to buy tickets so my cousin bought a book for me. One Sunday night I got a call from the American Legion letting me know that I had won the $500. What a tradition! My Uncle Don was a rock in the community. Everyone knew he would be there in a heartbeat if help was needed. He was the ultimate in community and it made such a difference. He recently passed away and I miss him!

My other Uncle Don married my aunt. He was one of the computer savants hired by IBM right out of college. He worked his entire career for the Big Blue.

When he retired we got to see some of the planning and meticulous approaches he had to life. His forte with our family was during the Thanksgiving season. He was the master of Black Friday day following Thanksgiving. He would start the first part of November to gather data on where to go and when to go to get the best Black Friday deals. This was before so much of the process occurred on-line. It was the day of 4 AM starts and overnite lines.

By the week before Thanksiving, he had a fully constructed Excel spread sheet filled out. He set up the goals for each year (one year it was two iPads and two electronic helicopters). We all had assignments regarding which store to be at and the time to show up. Even though we lived a couple hours away, we spent two or three years visiting during Thanksgiving and were immediately recruited onto the team. We followed him around as he marshalled the troops by phone (some in San Jose and some in parts of Minnesota). I've never worked so hard in my life! One year I ended up buying two electronic helicopters which I didn't use and eventually gave away as gifts. I wondered how I got caught up in the frenzy and my wife reminded me each helicopter was only $9.00. That was a fun morning as we checked in and found the familhy had scored a laptop computer a new iPad.

Every family has some form of traditioon like this. You might not recognize it as a tradition. My second wife's family had a tradition the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving. Everyone in the family who lived in the region would gather together on Tuesday. The only requirement was to bring their favorite pie. There would be an opening prayer and then all would gather at the portable tables filled with pies. I got to taste pies I had only heard of that night. It was the best!

What is your tradition? If you don't have one, make one. Life is about memories, not achievbements.