Christmas Eve 1982 continued

...in a weird way the snow made me feel safe.

Once the night manager had finished showing us the room, which was clean, but small, and only had one bed; We settled in for the night. I had only one thing on my little mind at the time: Is there a TV and does it work? I had to watch Frosty The Snowman, It was Christmas, and homeless or not, I was determind to watch it. There it was, an old ass set with the antennae on top, looked like it hadn't been used in eons. I walked up to it and turned the little knob to the left of the of the box to see if it worked(wow, I'm old, I remember when televisions had knobs and dials!). The TV came on and God was I disappointed, nothing but snow on the screen, not the least bit as charming at the flakes falling to the ground outside. I was undettered however, and began turning the dial frantically. Still nothing but snow. It was after eight o'clock, and I knew the show was on already, I had to make this TV work; my little brother was watching me and I knew that he wanted to see Frosty as well.

Chrismin (mommy) began unpacking our meager belongings. Seemingly unaware of how serious a matter this was to Misterman and me. I turned the dial again. Nothing. I was about to resign myself to the fact that I was not going to watch any Christmas specials that evening. I Remmember feeling so angry because I knew what we were going through as a family, and I also knew that we were not going to get any Christmas presents that year. I felt that at the very least, God would allow Misterman and me to watch some cartoons as we tried to celebrate the birth of his son. Now, I'm not a religious cat at all, but he did. In an act of sheer frustration, I turned the dial very fast, all the way around and when it stopped, it stopped on Channel two. In New York, Channel two plays all of the holiday cartoons. The picture wasn't very clear at all, but we could hear the show and make out some of the images. When it came on, Misterman who was still in his stroller, yelled "Mommy look, Frosty!" Chrismin stopped unpacking to look at the screen and said: I knew you could do it baby, you're my monkey boo boo mama. I felt safe again. That feeling didn't last very long...