Turn Off Your Christmas Lights
During the oil embargo of the early 1970’s I was in Germany in the Army. The Germans banned driving on Sundays for about four weeks but that was the only visible sign of any lack of oil. There were never any lines at gas stations nor was there any time that we couldn’t find gas to buy. But because most of the European countries got all of their oil from the Middle East, they were concerned about the use of fuel.
Most Europeans pay much more for fuel than we do in the states. As a result of those prices they are pretty concerned about big cars and other things that use quite a bit of fuel. As an example, they expect everyone to turn their cars off when waiting for a train to pass at a railroad crossing. If you don’t, a German citizen is likely to come up and tell you to turn your car off.
One of the things that most officers get to experience in the Army is being the duty officer for the commander. Each and every night there is an officer on duty who is responsible to ensure that everything is under control when the commander is off duty. This officer acts under the authority of the commander and what he says goes as if it came directly from the commander. Every soldier knows he has the authority in the absence of the commander.
In December 1973 I was assigned to be the duty officer on our little base. The commanding officer was a one star general that lived in the same housing area that my family did. The evening seemed to start quietly and with it being just a few days until Christmas there wasn’t much going on.
At seven thirty in the evening the general called me with some instructions. He said that it didn’t look good for the Americans on the base to have many outside Christmas lights on when there was an oil embargo and Germans were worried about a fuel shortage. It was true that the Americans really had lots of outside Christmas lights and the Germans were using very few. He instructed me to go to all of the on-post housing and tell them to turn off their outside Christmas lights and to not use them again that year.
On our post there were about ten buildings with sixteen apartments each and a few single homes. The job shouldn’t take very long so I headed out to complete my assignment. My plan was to knock on every door and tell them that the general had asked us to all turn off our outside Christmas lights that year in view of the oil embargo. It would save a little oil and was a nice supportive gesture of our German hosts. Some of their electricity was generated by the burning of oil.
I soon learned that what I was sent to do was not creating good will. When a soldier answered the door I would explain what the general had said and he would almost without fail say that he would take care of it. It would be pretty obvious that he wasn’t happy about it but understood that the general had sent me to make the request and he had better do it.
At some of the doors the non-service member, normally a wife, answered the door. On many of these occasions things didn’t go quite as smoothly. Some asked me if I didn’t believe in Christmas. Some asked if I was the Grinch that stole Christmas. There were some that swore at me and a few that slammed the door in my face. Of course when there was a problem I asked to see the service member. If the service member was home I explained to him the request and he complied. Sometimes the wife was still carrying on in back of him but the directions were going to be complied with. The service member knew that complying was the best choice.
I was surprised at the people that had great Christmas decorations but lacked any Christmas spirit. If being asked to turn off their outside Christmas lights to save a little oil really destroyed their Christmas spirit, it sure couldn’t have been very deep or very real. Christmas isn’t the only thing some folks put up a front about and say they believe or live but when a little test comes they show their true colors. These folks are all about the outside show. There really isn’t anything inside to back it up. They aren’t very deep and lack real understanding of important things in life. Thank goodness most people are good to the core and aren’t just an outside light show like the outside Christmas lights we turned off that night in Germany!
Most Europeans pay much more for fuel than we do in the states. As a result of those prices they are pretty concerned about big cars and other things that use quite a bit of fuel. As an example, they expect everyone to turn their cars off when waiting for a train to pass at a railroad crossing. If you don’t, a German citizen is likely to come up and tell you to turn your car off.
One of the things that most officers get to experience in the Army is being the duty officer for the commander. Each and every night there is an officer on duty who is responsible to ensure that everything is under control when the commander is off duty. This officer acts under the authority of the commander and what he says goes as if it came directly from the commander. Every soldier knows he has the authority in the absence of the commander.
In December 1973 I was assigned to be the duty officer on our little base. The commanding officer was a one star general that lived in the same housing area that my family did. The evening seemed to start quietly and with it being just a few days until Christmas there wasn’t much going on.
At seven thirty in the evening the general called me with some instructions. He said that it didn’t look good for the Americans on the base to have many outside Christmas lights on when there was an oil embargo and Germans were worried about a fuel shortage. It was true that the Americans really had lots of outside Christmas lights and the Germans were using very few. He instructed me to go to all of the on-post housing and tell them to turn off their outside Christmas lights and to not use them again that year.
On our post there were about ten buildings with sixteen apartments each and a few single homes. The job shouldn’t take very long so I headed out to complete my assignment. My plan was to knock on every door and tell them that the general had asked us to all turn off our outside Christmas lights that year in view of the oil embargo. It would save a little oil and was a nice supportive gesture of our German hosts. Some of their electricity was generated by the burning of oil.
I soon learned that what I was sent to do was not creating good will. When a soldier answered the door I would explain what the general had said and he would almost without fail say that he would take care of it. It would be pretty obvious that he wasn’t happy about it but understood that the general had sent me to make the request and he had better do it.
At some of the doors the non-service member, normally a wife, answered the door. On many of these occasions things didn’t go quite as smoothly. Some asked me if I didn’t believe in Christmas. Some asked if I was the Grinch that stole Christmas. There were some that swore at me and a few that slammed the door in my face. Of course when there was a problem I asked to see the service member. If the service member was home I explained to him the request and he complied. Sometimes the wife was still carrying on in back of him but the directions were going to be complied with. The service member knew that complying was the best choice.
I was surprised at the people that had great Christmas decorations but lacked any Christmas spirit. If being asked to turn off their outside Christmas lights to save a little oil really destroyed their Christmas spirit, it sure couldn’t have been very deep or very real. Christmas isn’t the only thing some folks put up a front about and say they believe or live but when a little test comes they show their true colors. These folks are all about the outside show. There really isn’t anything inside to back it up. They aren’t very deep and lack real understanding of important things in life. Thank goodness most people are good to the core and aren’t just an outside light show like the outside Christmas lights we turned off that night in Germany!
posted by Bruce | 7:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home