Christmas tree from the Boy Scouts brings back memories | Street Scene

Merry Christmas! The wonderful Christmas gaiety is upon us, the hustle and bustle coming down the home stretch. We appreciate the beautiful downtown light displays and those in our front yards and along fences in our more rural areas. The cool weather and bright night sky more seasonal, creating a burst of optimism for our tomorrows.

Excitement and wonder are everywhere, none more than for our children. If ever there was a place to look into the window of humanity it is in the eyes of our children, for the child cannot hide that which resides in his and her little heart. This is a time of year to come together especially when we choose to forget our differences and cherish our likeness.

In these last days of flurry be ever mindful school is out and that means the children are out and about. A child’s exuberance cannot be contained, they will be playing on neighborhood streets, racing across parking lots, jumping up and down in the department stores not at all realizing their situational awareness. It is up to us adults to know where they are so not to accidentally knock them down the escalator as they fly into us full tilt. Or worse, fly into the street and the path of our cars.

Beginning now into early Christmas morning and lasting for days well into late evenings children will be playing in the streets, in the early darkness. The last thing on their mind is a car coming down the street, around the bend, over the hill or backing out of a driveway. The responsibility of where children are playing and pets are napping falls to the motorists.

As most of you, the Stuarts journeyed to buy a Christmas tree. Again, this year we head to the Boy Scouts. I’m often asked, why do you insist on buying Christmas trees from the Boy Scouts? Well, I’ll tell you. As a Boy Scout in Michigan our Troop would be invited onto private land to cut down Christmas trees and sell them.

Michigan winters can be brutal so when not selling or tying up and loading Christmas trees we would be huddled around one of three 55-gallon drums full of fire. Faces warmed but fingers and toes with almost no feeling at all. Melting snow on your gloves provides cold water to your fingers. Once you move away from that blazing fire the warm water in your gloves becomes ice water.

I remember getting home quite late one night, my mom and dad wondering why I had been so late. As I took off my cap my dad moving closer ushered me in front of a mirror. I was astonished, my eyebrows were little, tiny curly fries. When I touched them, some broke off. Mom wasn’t amused.

But back we went the next night, winter nights in Michigan begin around four o’clock in the afternoon, to earn money for the March of Dimes. Scouts of America provide many services to their community, making Christmas ornaments or selling cookies and trees, none more important than instilling in the developing child a positive pathway to adulthood.

The effort young Boy Scouts and their Cub Scout siblings make to provide a share of their Christmas tree sales to charities is commendable.

Happy New Year: Star Metro offers free shuttles

If it is your custom to consume alcoholic beverages or any other drug (yes alcohol is a drug) in order to celebrate, then stay away from the controls of any scooter, cycle, vehicle or vessel. Many in America reading Street Scene today won’t be with us during 2023.

Although few, considering the total population, some won’t heed the many warnings of the effects drugs have on our ability to reason, how sluggish our response is to our ability to perceive danger, how incapacitated we actually are after consuming alcoholic drinks.

Remember you are part of a family and community that can’t get along without you. Be smart in understanding driving under the influence (DUI) is being upright and coherent, not only stumbling with slurred speech.

When consuming alcohol do not drive, seek sober family or friends for trips to and from.

The City of Tallahassee - Star Metro provides shuttles New Year’s Eve. Yellow Cab Co. of Tallahassee will not offer free rides but others do so check with the taxi companies in your city.

Let us all enjoy the holidays to the fullest as we look forward to a new beginning in a new year. Many blessings, ‘see you in 2023.

Philip Stuart is a retired Florida State Trooper, Traffic Operations Projects Engineer and Forensics Expert Witness. Write to crashsites@embarqmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Now Dasher, now Dancer, keep your sleigh safe this holiday season