CityView Magazine

14 | November/December • 2014 Call us today and see what opportunities are waiting for you! (910) 678-8386 faytechcc.edu/continuing_education FTCC CONTINUING EDUCATION Winter classes begin in January 2015! Scholarships being offered for a variety of programs! Sign up NOW to claim your scholarship & begin training for a new career! the candlelight service on Christmas Eve became something of a capitalistic blur. I moved to Eastover around 1989. My best companion at that time was Russell Hill, who would drive into my rented homestead each evening to feed the own- er's horses. We pontificated regularly on the world's problems with plastic cups of tinkling ice cubes in hand and with the smell of his burning tobacco in the cool of the dusk. I casually asked him one evening just aer anksgiving what he was getting his wife and children for Christmas. He did not know, but said he would figure it out before the 25th. A couple of weeks later, I asked again. e poor fellow! He had made no progress. I dared not tell Mona of this, though I did consider consulting my mother. On December 23rd, I asked him once more. Imagine my horror to find he was no fur- ther along than he was on that day weeks before when Mona had finished her shop- ping. "Russell, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, man!" With the look of the Marl- boro man, his eyes met mine and he said, "at sounds like a good time to start." When I saw him the next day, coming in to feed as I was on my way out to the 5:30 service at church, I noticed the en- tire hunch seat of his pick-up truck laden with store-wrapped gis. While I was relieved that a family I cared for was in- deed going to have a Christmas aer all, I remained perplexed at the reckless and heretofore un-witnessed shopping habits of my swell pal. Soon, 11 months of dust will be blown off both movie versions and the hard- cover book of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." A Frazier fir will emanate its fragrance in the corner of the den. Susie will do her sugared peanuts and I will as- semble the magic ingredients required for reindeer food. e Fontanini nativ- ity le to me by my pretty momma will dominate the mantle. I picture it in my mind. I picture a baby in a bed of straw and Kings honoring him with gis. I pic- ture everyone of my household opening their wrapped presents from under that Frazier fir. And it occurs to me now that no one will know and no one will care on what day I actually bought them. CV Color your life Endless Print Ad 4,5"x5,5"_US_Brand.indd 2 30/07/14 12.14 910.868.6472 • 220 Hay Street • Downtown Fayetteville Walter Guy Jewelers

• Cover