A Calico Christmas

 

Spending my teenage years growing up in Laredo, TX, was not a particularly easy or pleasant experience. Amongst the many annoyances one had to deal with in a culturally isolated South Texas border town was a lack of quality English-language programming on the radio. If you weren’t into silly bubble-gum pop or a multitude of Spanish-language musical genres, you were out of luck. Thus, I had to rely heavily on AM radio stations broadcasting from San Antonio, some 150 miles up I-35.

Among the ones I listened to most were KTSA 550-AM, a talk radio station (on which I would discover a dynamic young conservative talk show host named Rush Limbaugh in June 1991) and KKYX 680-AM, a country music station that every Friday featured a college football program hosted by then-Texas Tech head coach William “Spike” Dykes.

While listening to the latter in December 1990, a beautiful, sentimental song was played over and over again. The name of the song was “Calico Christmas.” It had wonderful lyrics, telling the story of a soldier stationed overseas who was missing Christmas in his Texas hometown, dreaming of his bride in her favorite calico dress. It received a lot of airplay likely because hundreds of thousands of American troops had been recently deployed to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield. War was imminent, and no doubt the song helped sooth the angst of many on the home front.

However, after the winter of 1990-91, I never heard the song again. Over the years, I searched in vain at stores like Musicland, Suncoast, and Sam Goody, and later all across the internet. But I found nothing, absolutely nothing. Two days ago, that all changed. I finally tracked down the song (posted below), and the artist is a College Station-based singer-songwriter named Jack Houston. Pretty tune, ain’t it?

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  1. Kay of MT Inactive
    Kay of MT
    @KayofMT

    I answered this post some hours ago, and the post was “waiting approval.” Meantime my response to this post has vanished.

    The song is very lovely, and so is the Calico Cat, in the Xmas box.

    • #1
  2. Goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    Goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    Kay of MT (View Comment):

    I answered this post some hours ago, and the post was “waiting approval.” Meantime my response to this post has vanished.

    The song is very lovely, and so is the Calico Cat, in the Xmas box.

    Hmm. The same thing happened to me. Strange. Probably some glitch that Max has just fixed as it appears to be working now.

    • #2
  3. Mike "Lash" LaRoche Inactive
    Mike "Lash" LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    Kay of MT (View Comment):

    I answered this post some hours ago, and the post was “waiting approval.” Meantime my response to this post has vanished.

    The song is very lovely, and so is the Calico Cat, in the Xmas box.

    Thanks, Kay. The cat in the Xmas box was my cat Lindy, who died six years ago. She was named after former Green Bay Packers head coach Lindy Infante.

    • #3
  4. Goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    Goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    I agree with Kay. Beautiful song and sweet cat.

    • #4
  5. Mike "Lash" LaRoche Inactive
    Mike "Lash" LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    Goldwaterwoman (View Comment):

    I agree with Kay. Beautiful song and sweet cat.

    Thanks, GoldwaterWoman!

    • #5
  6. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    It’s strange how sometimes some song is everywhere, then just vanishes.  Glad you finally found it at last.  It is a lovely song.

    • #6
  7. Kevin Schulte Member
    Kevin Schulte
    @KevinSchulte

    The guy has a really pleasant voice. 

    • #7
  8. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    A lovely song and oh so timely, seasonal in more senses than one.

    • #8
  9. Kay of MT Inactive
    Kay of MT
    @KayofMT

    I love  Calico cats. Almost all the cats I have had were Calicos. My next favorite cat is a Manx.

    I cannot hear well enough to decipher the words, so tried to find the “lyrics” on line and couldn’t find them. But the melody is lovely and the vocalist is soothing.

    My computer service went down about the time of my first post, just came back about 40 min ago.

    • #9
  10. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Kay of MT (View Comment):

    I answered this post some hours ago, and the post was “waiting approval.” Meantime my response to this post has vanished.

    The song is very lovely, and so is the Calico Cat, in the Xmas box.

    Mine disppeared too:

    Mike “Lash” LaRoche: It had wonderful lyrics, telling the story of a soldier stationed overseas who was missing Christmas in his Texas hometown, dreaming of his bride in her favorite calico dress.

    A pretty song, and a reminder we should be thinking of and praying for our men and women in uniform while they’re stationed all over the world, away from home and family this Christmas . . .

    • #10
  11. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Thanks, Mike.  This resonates.  I’ll play this for the lovely and talented Mrs. Mongo.  She’ll cry.

    Okay.

    I’ll cry, and she’ll say, “Buck up, Nancy.”

    • #11
  12. OmegaPaladin Moderator
    OmegaPaladin
    @OmegaPaladin

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):

    Thanks, Mike. This resonates. I’ll play this for the lovely and talented Mrs. Mongo. She’ll cry.

    Okay.

    I’ll cry, and she’ll say, “Buck up, Nancy.”

    Which she will promptly do, followed by slapping you.

    Nice post @mikelaroche !

    • #12
  13. Mike "Lash" LaRoche Inactive
    Mike "Lash" LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    Glad y’all enjoyed it!

    • #13
  14. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Why didn’t I get a notification of this post? I liked it! Sorry to be late.

    • #14
  15. Mike "Lash" LaRoche Inactive
    Mike "Lash" LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    RightAngles (View Comment):

    Why didn’t I get a notification of this post? I liked it! Sorry to be late.

    Thanks, Righty!

    • #15
  16. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Mike "Lash" LaRoche (View Comment):

    RightAngles (View Comment):

    Why didn’t I get a notification of this post? I liked it! Sorry to be late.

    Thanks, Righty!

    I just realized why. I somehow “un-followed” you. I don’t know how. I suspect my tablet stylus, however, which was malfunctioning for a while by madly selecting everything. I had to get a new one.

    • #16
  17. Mike "Lash" LaRoche Inactive
    Mike "Lash" LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    RightAngles (View Comment):

    Mike "Lash" LaRoche (View Comment):

    RightAngles (View Comment):

    Why didn’t I get a notification of this post? I liked it! Sorry to be late.

    Thanks, Righty!

    I just realized why. I somehow “un-followed” you. I don’t know how. I suspect my tablet stylus, however, which was malfunctioning for a while by madly selecting everything. I had to get a new one.

    Always glad to have a beautiful woman following me. 😎😉

    • #17
  18. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Mike "Lash" LaRoche (View Comment):

    RightAngles (View Comment):

    Mike "Lash" LaRoche (View Comment):

    RightAngles (View Comment):

    Why didn’t I get a notification of this post? I liked it! Sorry to be late.

    Thanks, Righty!

    I just realized why. I somehow “un-followed” you. I don’t know how. I suspect my tablet stylus, however, which was malfunctioning for a while by madly selecting everything. I had to get a new one.

    Always glad to have a beautiful woman following me. 😎😉

    Haha! Don’t look back! psssst

    • #18
  19. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    RightAngles (View Comment):
    I just realized why. I somehow “un-followed” you. I don’t know how.

    Uh huh.  Go ahead, RA, deploy the “it’s not you, it’s me.”

    • #19
  20. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):

    RightAngles (View Comment):
    I just realized why. I somehow “un-followed” you. I don’t know how.

    Uh huh. Go ahead, RA, deploy the “it’s not you, it’s me.”

    Haha 

    • #20
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