On the west side of Downshire is the town of Northchapel which had always been the Industrial powerhouse of the County and although it doesn’t physically occupy its centre it is the beating heart of the Region.
In recent generations its fortunes had
suffered greatly but in the 21st century major regeneration of the
town was underway.
And in amongst the maze of roads, crescents,
and cul-de-sacs of the new housing developments, lived seventy-four-year-old
widow, Howard Rawlins and his Jack Russell Sparky.
Every night at ten o’clock he took Sparky
for a walk, and it was always a pleasant yet uneventful ritual they both went
through last thing every night before turning in, and then it was Christmas
time again, as if anyone could fail to notice, within five minutes of leaving
the house he saw more than half a dozen houses decorated to the hilt.
But that was nothing compared to some of
the homes on view during his and Sparky’s late evening walks.
Houses bedecked with every coloured light
imaginable, Santa's on the roof or climbing a ladder, sleighs, elves, snowmen, angels,
reindeer, bells, stars, baubles and last but by no means least, at one
particular house, standing almost four feet high, and seated in the middle of
the lawn was that perennial Christmas favourite, Winnie the Pooh.
“Wait a minute” he said to Sparky “what does Pooh have to do with Christmas?”
Sparky however declined to answer as he
was preoccupied with sniffing a lamppost.
So, he said no more but as their walked
continued on the nights following he spotted Pooh often, not at every other
house, but a lot seemed to have one so he figured that there must be something
in it.
He was a regular church goer, and had been all his life, but he didn’t recall mention
of him in the bible and in the many nativity plays he had seen over the years
he was conspicuous by his absence and although there was definitely a donkey,
it was not Eeyore.
The stable did not house Piglet, and the wise men did not travel from the east
with Tigger bearing gifts of Huney.
Nor in any of the Christmas traditions around the world is there a single
reference to Pooh as one of Santa's helpers.
There was Black Peter, The Jolly Elf, even the devil figure, Krampus, but no
Pooh, but people still gave him pride of place on their lawns at Christmas.
The Decorations began to disappear in the
days following Christmas, some as early as the 27th of December, a
lot on New Year’s Day, those homes belonging to the superstitious removed
theirs on 12th night and the remainder waited until the weekend
after, which was when the large Winnie the Pooh was removed from the lawn.
Two weeks later Howard was sitting beside
the fire reading the newspaper with Sparky at his feet, when a story caught his
eye about events around the county celebrating Winnie the Pooh Day and he said.
“Today is the day when the 4ft Pooh should
be in pride of place on number 75s lawn, Sparky, not Christmas, I wonder if
they even know”
Sparky lifted one ear in response and that
was the sum total of his interest.
Later that night they went out for their
usual walk and took their usual route but when they got close to number 75,
Howard stopped in his tracks and laughed, because in the middle of their lawn
was the illuminated 4ft Pooh, but he was surrounded by two dozen other, of
various sizes and in different poses.
“Well, I guess they do know its Winnie the
Pooh day then Sparks” he said, but Sparky was only interested in getting on
with their walk.
