Sonya's Blog - Day 187 - Boxing Day
Sonya’s Blog - Day 187 - December 26th - Boxing Day
So they do not have Boxing Day in the United States of America. This, I did not know. I guess it makes sense, since it is British and all. The tradition didn’t start up in earnest in England until the 19th century. Considering that the US became independent in the 18th century, they do not follow this tradition. Now I always thought it was called Boxing Day because it was during the Victorian era when the wealthy would box up their unwanted gifts and distribute them to the poor. I had read this in a book ages ago, took it for the truth, and have touted that theory ever since. I just read up on Boxing Day, again, and I guess I am wrong. According to the three websites I just looked at, and they all say the same thing, it is because the servants had to wait on their masters on Christmas Day and would get the following day off to spend with their families. The servants would receive a Christmas-box with gifts, gratuities and leftover food to take home to their families. This tradition expanded through the years, wherein, anyone who has done services for someone through the year would expect to be given a present or gratuity on the first weekday following Christmas (Boxing Day is not always on the 26th in England and other Commonwealth countries - except in Canada - it’s always on the 26th). It was not called Boxing Day until the 1830’s, but the tradition goes back later than that.
I found out that the US didn’t have Boxing Day when we were at the get together on Christmas Eve. One of the gentlemen asked me when Boxing Day was. I was a little confused, because I didn’t know what he meant. I finally discovered he wanted to know which day it fell on. This is when I discovered that the US does not have a Boxing Day.
We decided to visit Tybee Island today. It is about 30 KM’s away and is supposed to be a nice place to visit with beautiful beaches. Well, I give Tybee Island a big thumbs down! First of all, no dogs are allowed on the beaches. There are miles and miles of beaches, but not one where you can take your dog. Now, we have been spoiled with the beaches since we have been on the East Coast. Kizmet has been allowed on every beach we have been to because it is off season. If we were here when it was high season, she would still be allowed on the beaches, but the hours would be restricted (not during the day when it is busiest). I was not expecting this, I was just expecting there to be some dog beaches, so that has been a real treat. Now we get to Tybee Island and no dogs are allowed, anywhere, anytime, on any of the beaches. They have approximately five miles of beaches, possibly more. Blake and the kids went down to the beach to check it out and were not impressed. It was a little stinky and not as nice as some other beaches we have been to. We headed down to the Public Pier to check out that area. Well, Kizmet wasn’t allowed on the pier either. We walked around the streets a bit, but it was all touristy shops and restaurants and we were bored so we left. It was also incredibly foggy when we were there and it was hard to see much.
Here is some interesting information about Tybee Island that I did not know before we went. I was looking up how many miles of beaches they have and discovered that they have a lost atomic bomb somewhere on or near Tybee Island. That is scary and fascinating. Here is the thing. The US Air Force was doing military training exercises in the area in 1958. Something went terribly wrong and a 7600 pound Mark 15 nuclear bomb was DROPPED! I know you are thing - HOLY S**t! Well that is certainly what I was thinking. You are not to be worried though, because it was apparently not armed with a fuse and never detonated. Oh, that’s good, right? Wrong. It was NEVER found, like never. It is still out there somewhere just lying around being a nuclear bomb. I guess there is “some concern” about this. You think? I would be very concerned about this, I currently am very concerned. You would think that they could find it, they know where it was dropped. For crying out loud, it is a 12 foot bomb that weighs 7600 pounds! To put this in perspective, it is at least as powerful as the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WWII, but probably more powerful since it was developed later. There were a few unsuccessful searches and then it was declared lost. The reason it was dropped was because an F-86 fighter jet collided with a B-47 bomber (which had the bomb). To protect the crew from the bomb detonating, the bomb was jettisoned (dropped in layman’s terms). The bomb is somewhere in the Wassaw Sound off the shores of Tybee Island, but sorry folks we just cannot find it. It’s funny and scary.
On the way back, we had to stop at the mall to exchange one of Natasha’s gifts. Her Auntie Amber gave her a Harry Potter dress with the Marauder’s Map on it, but I had bought medium which was way too big for her. Luckily, they had a small in stock and we were able to exchange it. We did discover that the malls are extremely busy and have lots of sales, they just aren’t called Boxing Day Sales.
We had a whole bunch of recycling and I had discovered that they had a recycling depot near the mall to drop stuff off at. Our campground doesn’t have a recycling area, which is unfortunate. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by how many campgrounds in the US that have had recycling. Anyhow, we found the depot and pulled in. We saw that they wanted sorted recycling, but we thought we could just sort it in there. Well no, you cannot. They actually have staff that take it out of your car for you and you need to have it sorted before you get there. They only take a few recyclable items as well. So we had to leave. Not a success.
We got back to the campground and the boys played with the neighbours drone helicopter and went to the pool to dip their feet. Natasha headed over to the clubhouse to facetime with her friend and do some homework (the wifi is better over there, plus she likes to get her alone time). I hung out with Kizmet outside and read my book I got for Christmas. I was reading another book, which I will get back to, but this one is funnier. Blake got me a Dave Barry book for Christmas and I think he is hysterical. He wrote a humour column for years for the Miami Herald and sometimes the Calgary Herald would pick it up. That is when I first read Dave Barry, way back when we actually had a newspaper delivered to our house. This was before Blake and I were even married and living in our first house that we owned. The one article, we both still talk about, was on synchronized swimming and both of us were in stitches reading it. This book is called I’ll Mature When I’m Dead and it is his amazing tales of Adulthood. I laughed through most of the book and chuckled through the rest. Very funny.
When the boys got back, they did some dishes and started watching Spy Hard with Leslie Neilson. It is silly, but Isaac found it funny and Blake has never seen it. It is a way to make doing the dishes go faster. The movie was playing fine for awhile, but then it started pausing and loading and we never got to see the ending (we were watching it on netflix, so it all depends on the wifi). We went outside, instead, and had a campfire and enjoyed the cooler air. We don’t like to be outside for the first hour or so after the sun goes down, because that is when the bugs come out. After that, it is fine, but it is really wet. There is so much humidity that as soon as the sun goes down, everything gets wet - it’s kind of gross. I checked the humidity and it is at 100%, I thought it was more like 300%, but I am not sure that is statistically possible. It sure feels like that. So 100% humidity, but it is not raining. You literally feel like you are getting wet just walking around outside. It’s crazy.
Hope you all had a good Boxing Day!
Sonya