Bah Humbug and Happy Whatever

My father, Guido

As we head into the season I want to share a paragraph from a letter written by my dad, Guido. It was his last holiday letter written in 2005. He specialized in the art (and it is an art) of being a curmudgeon. His holiday letters in no way resembled traditional holiday letters as most of America knows them. They contained a recap of the year flavored with dark humor, irony, pathos, and large quantities of his trademark curmudgeonliness.

Here's a sample of Guido's holiday flare:

Admonitions from this old geezer:

Turn off your TV's and read a book....Don't listen to Madison Avenue hucksters....Avoid X-mas mania...Spend less and save...Avoid voting for dim wits...Tear up your credit cards...Get rid of those Washington bandits and liars...And most importantly, LOVE ONE ANOTHER AND ESPECIALLY YOUR FAMILIES... Be grateful you are alive; that your roof doesn't leak, that you have health insurance and bread and butter on the table. And don't try to solve the mystery of life. Stay well and have a good whatever. Hang in the there!

Merry whatever and a Happy whatever,

Guido

Guido was a character larger than life. His letters were collected and shared, and when I later went through his correspondences I found requests from people that he didn’t even know, asking for several copies of his letters with envelope and postage included (this is all pre-blog and pre-John Stewart).

My mother would edit his letters before sending them, always putting in a call to me: "Talk to your father right away!" I'd make the call home with, sometimes, a pseudo shocked voice telling my father the words of the letter were, "Too dark, too political, too cynical, too insensitive to other views, too shocking..." I was lucky if my father heard even a word or two—it all depended on the year and his mood!

When Guido died, the first words out of many friends' mouths were, "Oh no, the newsletter will stop!" Realizing what they’d said in response to my father’s passing, they immediately followed with an apology. He, of course would have loved it—I did.

Six years later, Guido’s words are just as current and predictive. As I prepared the Holiday Collection for Wilfrida’s Closet, I heard Guido's voice providing commentary on the past year, offering up perfect, crazy, holiday material, accompanied with my mother in the background protesting, "No, no, you can't say that."

And so it is only fitting to follow family tradition and wish you all a warm and happy holiday (or whatever), and hey, love one another. I hope everyone survives the deluge of Black Friday advertising, enjoys a lovely Thanksgiving, and manages to remain intact if any shopping malls are visited.

Many thanks to all who have been so supportive.

-Rita