The Good Old Days

December 1995 (Christmas)

A couple weeks had passed, and the semester was finally over. Melissa had gone through with her plans to drop out of school; she felt confident in her decision. She told the rest of her and Jed's friends, and they didn't give her any grief for it. Her parents, on the other hand, weren't the most happy with her choice, but she figured with the upcoming holidays, they'd be distracted enough to lay off of her.

Now that Christmas was in just four days, all of the dorming students at their school had returned home to their parents' houses for the winter break. This meant that last Friday, Cathy had to say goodbye to Joseph for a while as he returned back home to Rhode Island. Before he left, though, Joseph gave Cathy an early Christmas present. A cell phone. She never had one before, and enjoyed the ease of being able to make calls from wherever, especially now that her boyfriend would be states away. Yesterday, he spoke to her on the phone at every stop of his four hour drive home.

Cathy was sitting on the end of the couch, in the basement of her parents' house now. Melissa and Jedidiah were seated together, on the opposite end of the sectional, while Adam and Daisy were to Cathy's right side, directly in the middle, cuddling each other. They all looked on as Cathy got up from her spot, walked over to the closet and made her selection from the dozens of tapes. She picked one out, walked back over to the television, and popped in the VHS for the Santa Claws into the VCR that sat on the top of the television set.

"I know this one only came out last year," Cathy said as she returned to the couch to sit down, "but it's already a classic."

The tape began to cycle through several trailers for movies that had already come out. The five friends on the couch nestled into the cushions as the movie itself finally began. They all watched together. About twenty minutes into the movie's playtime, Adam spoke up.

"Hey, you ever think about how there aren't any Hanukkah movies?"

"Not really," Jed quickly answered.

"That's society for ya," Mel interjected, "for some reason it's all 'majority rules' and they don't care about diversity or equality."

"Aw, you're right. They should make some, I think a lot of people would watch a Hanukkah movie," Daisy said, "I know my family would."

"So would mine," Adam said.

"That's because you two are both Jewish. The simple fact of the matter is that plenty of non-Christians will still watch Christmas movies but non-Jewish people aren't going to watch a Hanukkah movie. Christmas has been way more commercialized and removed from the actual religious part of it than Hanukkah has. It's not personal, it's just marketing," Jedidiah explained.

"I would watch a Hanukkah movie," Melissa insisted.

"Alright... most non-Jewish people wouldn't...We all know Melly isn't normal," Jed corrected.

"Nor would I ever wanna be!"

"We wouldn't want you to change either," Adam added.

"Shhh!" Cathy hushed her chattering friends as she tried to refocus on the movie.

The silence didn't last long though, as Jed suddenly thought it'd be funny to start tickling his girlfriend. Mel started wiggling rapidly around on the couch and laughing loudly. She was kicking her legs everywhere, throwing the blankets and pillows to the floor. Jed himself began to laugh too, at the sight of Melissa's spazzing, which ended with her landing on the conveniently cushioned floor.

"Jed!" Cathy yelled, "I'm trying to watch!"

"Pop a chill pill for me, would ya?" Melissa said, as she managed to lift herself back up from the floor, collecting the pillows and blankets under her arms.