Whew! We finally got through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Now it is time for the Christmas Wine Story to come out. I’ve been holding on to this story for almost sixty years. Now all the principle characters are deceased and we won’t have to change names to protect the guilty.
This story came to me sixty years ago. It actually happened in the early 1940s. It is a story of ingenuity and cunning by a small boy and his adventures with the slick adversary known as Christmas Wine. This adversary has causes several calamities over the years. It could be a cautionary tale or just a funny story. It might have the ring of something that even happened in your family.
My friend A.T. was about ten years old. He had an aunt that lived in a different town. She had a big grape vine. They were the best grapes around. They were fun to pick and eat. A.T.’s aunt would pick grapes during the summer and make an entire barrel of wine. She would have the barrel besides the barn. It would cure or ferment or whatever wine does to age.
At Thanksgiving their large family would gather at the aunt’s house for dinner and for a taste of the wine. That was the highlight of the year for A.T.’s family. The aunt would go get a pitcher of the wine after Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone would get a little taste of the wine. The grownups would get a glass and even the children would get a very small glass of the wine. The wine would age until Christmas and then the aunt would gift a bottle of wine to every family. People loved the little taste at Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving dinner was over and the aunt asked A.T. if he would go help get the pitcher of wine for the tasting. This was his chance. Usually, his dad would go and help the aunt get the wine. They would put a plastic tube into the wine barrel, a quick suck on the tube and wine would siphon out into the pitcher. This year A.T. would have that job.
They went to the side of the barn. Unplugged the barrel and stuck in the plastic tube. A.T. started the syphon. When the wine began to flow he pinched the tube and cut off the flow of wine. His aunt said to start it again. He started again and when the wine started flowing he again pinched off the tube. Several attempts and the aunt said she was going to get his dad and they would just tilt the barrel and just pour the wine into the pitcher.
A.T. had worked his plan to perfection. In the last few years he realized that this wine was the sweetest tasting liquid in the world. Just the tiny taste he got at the Thanksgiving tasting only caused him to devise a plan that was now working to perfection. While his aunt was gone to get his father, he was sucking on the tube and enjoying the delicious tasting wine.
His aunt and father came back and tilted the barrel and got the pitcher full and into the house they went. Now it was time for the whole family to taste this year’s wine. They poured out a pitcher full and all the family raised their glasses for a toast to all the family’s many blessings.
Everyone praised the aunt for the wonderful job she had done with the wine. Everyone was excited to know that they would be getting their own bottle for a Christmas present in about a month. What a wonderful tasting drink. A.T. sat by the fireplace. He couldn’t remember if he was asked to do something or go fetch something. He only remembers that he was asked to stand up or move.
Think back to how much wine a ten year old could suck through a tube when unsupervised. Now think about how this sweet tasting wine could cause some balance problems.
There are three ways that we can maintain balance. Visually, we can see whether we are standing upright. Vestibular our inner ear gives us clues as to if we are upright and finally, proprioceptors in our limbs could give us a sense of balance. Well, none of those things were working.
When he stood up, A.T.’s right eye seemed to close but his left eye stayed focused on a lamp that seemed to be dimming. The inner ear was sending a message that the ceiling was spinning and the floor was starting to slant to the left. Those receptors in his limbs had given up any hope of giving a clue of his state of balance. The floor offered comfort as he hit it to go into peaceful Thanksgiving slumber.
Now the story has been told. A.T. didn’t get another taste of Thanksgiving wine for five years after that. Six years later his aunt gave up the wine making. He says for the rest of his life he would remember the wonderful taste of that wine.
Happy New Year.
