Gratitude Monday: only a hippopotamus will do

The other day, I was walking around the ‘hood, looking at what my neighbors had put up by way of holiday decorations. I was spurred to this by a convo with two of my colleagues, one of whom had started putting up the lights in his yard the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Now, in a normal year, this man would be dead to me for that. But—this being the year of the Apocalypse—I decided that being festive is a good thing, and I gave him a pandemic pass.

(Another output of that discussion was that I decided to hang lights in my front window. From the outside, they look lame. From the inside, however, they’re an absolute hellscape, and I scare myself every time I enter the kitchen.)

Well, for the most part, my neighbors have easily put me to shame, but there was one house that I wasn’t entirely sure of, so I asked the owner when she was out finishing up her decorating.

Yes, it’s a hippopotamus, because her favorite holiday song is “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”, and her kids grew up with her singing it to them all the time. Here it is at night:

This year, her son came by and set up the hippo in her yard while she was away, so she came home to find it. (Her son also gave a hippo to her daughter, who also lives in the cluster:)

Also, the son backed up his pickup truck and blasted the song out of his cab, which I’m truly sorry I missed.

I myself had never heard this song, so naturally I went Googling when I got home, and indeed, it is a thing. “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” was recorded by 10-year-old Gayla Peevey in 1953. (She’s got a very 1950s Brenda Lee sound going on it.) The recording was used as a fundraiser to acquire an actual hippopotamus for the Oklahoma City zoo.

As an aside, I've been researching hippopotami, and I don't think you'd really want one, for Christmas or anything. They are the most dangerous animals in Africa, and there are videos on the Webz of them taking on big cats, wild dogs and fully-grown Nile crocodiles. But YMMV.

Well, today I’m grateful for adding this song to my holiday repertoire. But I’m even more grateful to have heard my neighbor’s story and that she has two kids who still get into the joy of the season this way.