For me and many other Canadians (and enlightened Americans living near the border), one of the much-anticipated pleasures of the holiday season for many years was listening to Stuart McLean debut a new Christmas story on his CBC radio show. You knew you could tune in and spend half an hour that would lead you from collapsing with hysterical laughter to blinking back surprisingly emotional tears. It was a wonderful tradition.
Stuart passed away from cancer in February 2017 so intellectually I know there are no more stories coming. But emotionally, I know nothing of the sort. I long for his characteristically humorous and touching stories this time of the year and, even if Stuart is no longer around to read them, we still have his books to keep us company. And so, earlier this week, I found myself reaching for Home from the Vinyl Café.
Published in 1998, this was Stuart’s second volume of Vinyl Café stories. The Vinyl Café was the name of his radio program but it was also the name of the record shop run by Dave, the hapless hero of his stories. Dave, his wife Morley, and their children, Stephanie and Sam, were the focus of twenty-odd years of radio stories as Stuart chronicled their lives in a normal Toronto neighbourhood with stories of neighbourhood rivalries and friendships, social faux pas (something Dave was particularly subject too), Stephanie and Sam’s growing pains and Dave and Morley’s nostalgia for their own childhoods. They were wonderful stories and this book is a particularly wonderful collection of them.
It begins with the first – and one of the very best – of the Vinyl Café Christmas stories: “Dave Cooks the Turkey”. This appears to be available on the CBC website (here – this story starts around 24:30) so if you’re able to listen, go now and do so. It will be time well spent. Just make sure you’re somewhere you can laugh uproariously without alarming too many people. Dave’s wife Morley, after years of carrying the burden of all the holiday preparations as well as the day-to-day administering of their busy family, accepts Dave’s offer to help with Christmas this year: Dave can cook the turkey. He commits, happy to make a small offering towards marital harmony, but realises only on Christmas Eve that he has forgotten to buy the turkey. Determined to have the perfect Christmas dinner ready for his family (who are conveniently out of the house volunteering for most of Christmas day), he uses all of his ingenuity to acquire and cook a bird. But the path he takes is far from conventional and the results are hysterically funny.
The next story in the collection is one of my all-time favourites and could not be more different from “Dave Cooks the Turkey”. “Holland” tells the story of how Dave and Morley met in the 1970s and their early married life. It’s a story about the struggles to combine lives and traditions, and the work – and love, and patience – that is required to make that happen. It’s a beautiful story and one that has stayed fresh in my mind ever since I first heard all those years ago. Someone has helpfully uploaded it to YouTube so you can listen here (it’s been split into two parts).
There are some other equally classic stories in this book – “Burd”, about what happens when a rare bird decides to winter in Dave and Morley’s backyard, and “Polly Anderson’s Christmas Party”, which involves an awkward neighbourhood gathering and a mix up with the eggnog bowls – but others I’d forgotten. So many of the stories look at the anxiety Dave and Morley feel as parents, worrying about Sam and music lessons, or Stephanie and teenage romances, and they show what Stuart could do so well: make fun of the little things while always staying true to the heart of the matter.
I love these stories. I have read them countless times and I will read them countless more, alongside all the other volumes of Stuart’s books. They bring me great pleasure at this and any other time of year and I hope, if they’re not already a part of your life, you will give them a try. I can’t imagine them not bringing you joy.
As another Stuart and Vinyl Cafe fan I so agree. I subscribed to the podcasts so have all my favourites saved so I can heard Stuart deliver them again and again.
Ditto! I have years worth of shows saved and I love listening to them.
Thanks for sharing the audio link which I enjoyed a few hours ago, on Christmas Eve. These stories have been on my “of interest” list for some time.
Here it is now the early hours of Christmas Day. , so Happy Christmas to you and your readers.
Merry Christmas, David! I’m so pleased you were able to listen (I’m never sure what is available to listeners in different countries) and that you enjoyed it.