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Re: Friday Funny for Christmas, Part 2



Speaking of Fruitcakes,
Many years ago, 1967 to be exact, I spent Christmas in Vung Tau, Vietnam
courtesy of the United States Army Signal Corps.  It seems that all my
friends and relatives decided to send me fruitcake.  I received so many
fruitcakes that I truly believe that that part of Vietnam sank by a few
feet.  Of course, this was a few weeks before TET.  If we had run low on
ammo we could have launched these fruitcakes at the VC and NVA.  Better yet,
we should have just mailed the North Vietnamese Army fruitcakes.  Once
consumed, the Ho Chi Minh Trail would have been effectively closed because
they would be too heavy to move.

Oh yeah, I haven't liked fruitcake since.

Happy Holidays All


Paul A Oelkrug
The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries
Special Collections
Box 19497
702 College Street
Arlington, Texas 76019-0497
(817) 272-7580
Fax (817) 272-3360

 -----Original Message-----
From:   Dean DeBolt [mailto:ddebolt@MAIL.UWF.EDU]
Sent:   Friday, December 07, 2001 11:22 AM
To:     ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject:        Friday Funny for Christmas, Part 2

One of the symbols, for many years, of the approach
of Christmas in my household was the routine of arriving
at home in early December, stumbling across a dark
porch, and nearly breaking my neck by tripping over the
annual anvil-in-a-box sitting on the sill, the arrival of the
annual Christmas fruitcake!

Yes, one of the faculty in Physics Department came up
with the great idea of how to please all the faculty and
staff in the department (there were only 7 or 8 altogether)
by enrolling them in the annual Texas-Collins-Bakery-mailout
of holiday fruitcakes.   I always said it was actually the same
fruitcake, that once we'd given it away, it found its way back
to the bakery.     Every so often I'd read about a shortage of
iron or steel somewhere, and wonder where was Collins going
to find enough tins for this Christmas.

One of my favorite jokes is that there were really FOUR
wise men but he brought fruitcake and they wouldn't let him in!
And USA Today one year called Fruitcake the "food that
would not die."    And at least once a year someone sends me
the "new" internet story about the recipe for fruitcake (or some
similar dessert) which the cook after liberally imbibing the
rum (or liquor equivalent) turns the recipe into undecipherable
gibberish.

Still fruitcake is a symbol of the holiday season.  I've never
gotten a fruitcake for Easter or Fourth of July (and this is
NOT a hint) ... and I even found a website once that boasted
the story of the world's largest fruitcake (and the lady that
baked a fruitcake in the shape of Texas)....but thankfully
I've forgotten those addresses.

My mother reminds me frequently that she LIKES fruitcake,
and I do too...in moderation...and in slices about the size
of Saltine crackers.   Sadly this year the proverbial anvil
will not arrive as our Christmas-tradition-professor passed
away a few years ago....but Christmas memories and
traditions preserve the legend of the fruitcake.

Happy Holidays!

Dean



Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections and West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338

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