That’s right – another Christmas-y thing that I have issues with. Soon enough I’d be writing my own version of Twelve Days of Christmas. Speaking of which, if I still drive to work everyday and listen to the radio, I’d hate the Christmas songs by now, too. Good thing that’s not the case.
No offense here… but Christmas is the most over-rated and over-emphasized seasonal phenomenon in America… when everyone spends two full months per year making a big deal out of something, I’m sorry, I may get sick of it.
Nothing’s wrong with Salvation Army itself, either. I just hate its army of bell ringers. And it also wasn’t used to be annoying – recalling the good ol’ days when we bought groceries once a week at the local Walmart Super Center, when we’d run by the old dude in the red uniform who smiled and rang the bell, right before meeting the old dude in the blue uniform and taking a cart from him to shop the everyday low price items. That was nice. The crisp bell rings for 15 seconds a week brought out all the holiday spirit.
But like the expiration date on milk bottles, everything is different in New York. Here you have an army of grumpy New Yorkers in their red uniforms, ringing the bells like mad men, in the subway stations where the beggars beg and the homeless poop/pee/sleep. Having a red bucket or not, they look more like thugs than most beggars. And they have to do the bell ringing in a freaking enclosed confinement where large crowds of people have nowhere to run or hide for 5~15 minutes at a time. We already have to deal with the various loud noises the subway system creates, and now this constant high-decibel crap? Maybe if I stay in the station long enough the bell ringing will destroy my mind and cause me to go crazy and lose my job and end up on the streets and needing their salvation one day. Arg. And they’re always in the way. Did you know that New York subway stations are crowded?