The Slice: Should have saved some ‘Calvin and Hobbes’

There’s recycling and then there’s recycling.

“I thought it was just us,” said Kenyon Fields. “But apparently a lot of people like to wrap up presents with the Sunday comics.”

Of course, that would have been easier back when the comics pages were about two Sluggos wider.

If you were going to do that, what past or present comics would you want on the outside?

It’s all in a name: It’s not uncommon, when bringing out Christmas decorations such as wreaths and garlands, for church congregations to call this “the hanging of the greens.”

But at Spokane’s Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, they just call it “decorating the church for Advent.”

You see, as Florence Young told it, the wife of the pastor was a Green before she got married. And well, “the hanging of the greens” just didn’t sound friendly.

Wrap it up: Christy Himmelright remembers how her dad focused his poetic skills on the tags attached to Christmas gifts. “There were acrostics and terrible puns and lovely clues all to get through before we opened the presents. As I grew older, the ‘tag clue game’ came to mean as much, if not more, than what was in the box.

“My dad has been gone for 18 years, and I still have and treasure two of his hand-written tags, one in the box of coasters it described, and the other in the box that holds the ornament he gave us. They make me smile every time I find them again.”

Nancy Haynes was influenced by frugal family members who had lived through the Depression. They saved all Christmas wrapping and reused it. Over and over.

“To this day, it is impossible for me to tear paper off a present. The tape needs to be carefully cut (Daddy always pulled out his pocket knife for this step), then the paper must be carefully folded and set aside.”

Asked and answered: “Why does my 78-year-old, hairless on top father not wear a hat in 19 degree weather?” wrote Karen Botker. “Because my mother is not here to nag him.”

So now that job falls to Karen.

So it wasn’t just me: Bob Curry remembers being bummed when Christmas fell on a Saturday or a Monday. “Too much church.”

Go in peace.

Today’s Slice question: Is there someone living in your home who you rarely see during the work week because you have such radically different schedules?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. “My wife makes the best cheese ball,” wrote Scott Walker. “End of story.”