Redneck Christmas Soiree

Christmas time is the season that most people put their differences aside and work on having a good time. (Why that can’t be the "norm" has always been a mystery to me but that will have to be another blog someday.) And over the years I have attended company Christmas parties at a variety of places: Country Clubs, Fancy Hotel Lounges in Topeka, KS City and Wichita and even one in a Resort.

There were fancy decorations for the Holidays with flashing lights of every color, sparkling tensile and perfectly decorated 12-foot spruces. Those were places you had to put on that pair of slacks you hadn’t wore since last year, the sports coat that almost matched, the tie left over from the 70’s, suck it up and act "cultured". Some one from "the main office" or some one from "division" would make some sort of speech for an hour or so. We ate supper (which would be some sort of meat with a fancy name) and went home.

I always hated those Christmas parties!

But this year was a little different. Now I work for a rather small company, which has about 15 employees in it from start to finish … top dog down. But due to the nature of our business, we are hardly ever together enough to know each other real well. The demographics of employees are tremendously varied: education ranges from three with Masters degrees to high school dropouts. Backgrounds range from the Chautauqua and Osage hills to the KS City suburbs. So put us all in the same room and include the wives or hubbies it is a hilarious mixture of fun and frolic.

Last night’s soiree was held at "The Mule Barn Bar and Supper Club" and Fred was buying. The Coors, Budweiser and Michelob beer signs provided the colored lights but only one flashed. (Actually I think it has a short in it because the flashing would get rather erratic at times …. sort of like them strobe lights). There wasn’t any sparkling tensile, but the cobwebs did blow and shimmer in the dim lights each time the heater kicked on. And the spruce? Well, it was about 12 inches tall and had one three inch Christmas ball on it (which made it list to the side). Someone had tried to help it out though by hanging an empty beer can on the other side.

And when it came to supper, I knew what I was eating! It was a ribeye!

Everyone sat and talked, compared notes about kids or grandkids and swapped stories. No one was worried about sales, deliveries or production …. And we didn’t get an hour-long speech about it. But we did have a lot of "remember when" stories. And of course many of them were rather "stretched" …. But that’s ok since it justs made the laughter louder. Afterall, that's what Christmas is about, not about company profits.

Anyway, I guess it all comes down to, I’ll take a redneck soiree any day of the week over them hobnob celebrations.
Dennis