As all those Christmas carols get cranked up, there is one that I have come full circle on regarding whether I hate it or actually like it – Deck the Halls.
Primary reason I never cared for it is because when growing up at the Store, and later at the home we moved to on Curley Road, whenever that tune would play, my younger brother Stevie would always sing along to it “Deck the halls with J. Scott’s balls…..”
Instead of simply ignoring him and his bastardized rendition of the tune, I made the mistake of letting him know how much I didn’t care for his version of it by telling him to “Shut the hell up!”
Well, you know how all that little-brother-making-fun-of-big-brother worked out right? Whenever that song would play, Stevie, knowing that he would get a reaction out of me, would sing it out even louder. It got to the point that he didn’t even need the song to be playing, because he would just belt it out spontaneously and anyone within earshot who heard it of course would laugh along with him as he repeated the refrain.
I even once caught Mom smiling at it as she told Stevie that he shouldn’t be saying such things about his brother. However, Mom never really punished him for saying/singing it.
And of course, all of that just made me madder still. And the more I showed my anger with him, the more he did it. I remember chasing him around the house to try and catch and silence him by strangling him if I could get my hands on him.
So for that reason, and those childhood memories courtesy of Brother Stevie, I never much cared for Deck the Halls. Fa-la-la-la-la my ass!
However, a strange thing has transpired as I travel down life’s road to senility. Whenever I hear Deck the Halls nowadays, it makes me smile at the memory of little brother Stevie pushing my buttons like he did. I can even tolerate those Fa-la-la-la’s (to some degree at least.)
On the subject of brotherly rivalries and shenanigans, there was this funny story about the Harbaugh brothers and their Dad after Super Bowl 47:
Note to any of you coming into Buzzy’s Country Store singing Brother Stevie’s Deck the Halls version, the beer/drink prices will be double. Naw, just joking with you. Instead, we’ll have a toast to Brother Stevie.
Only one song to play here: