Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for December 24, 2024

Ralph, you goof! That’s not a VCR!

Good idea, Ralph! The lint and static inside that wool stocking will do wonders for the magnetic tape.

The only picture Ralph has of his late wife is a small black-and-white photo that looks like it was taken at the passport office?

Can’t bear to watch the memories.

He gonna keeps it there until he theenks of a way to drags this along for over a whole week eh.

This helped kill any good mood for me. My nephew has been deployed “overseas” the first week of January. Sister and family luckily able to spend this whole week with him. Good thoughts, please.

He was a ranger during the Vietnam war.

This is a different tape than yesterday. This is a T-160. The other one had larger hubs and held less tape.

Smirk, smirk, smirk. What better time to be superior than Christmas.

Genuinely touching

Awww…

You really should keep tapes in their sleeves. Especially ones with irreplaceable content that you haven’t had transferred yet.

Precious memories……….of family members!!!

Can’t you see he has gifted the video tape to himself because they are memories of his wife and son who are departed and watching it later on Christmas will be the best gift he could ever have received. Ed brought him the tape yesterday.

oh by the way merry christmas ralph turn on your hearing aid so ed doesnt have to keep on repeating !!!!

wheres eugene ?

“Look at me! I’m snarking! My ego is the most important thing here, even when dead loved ones are the subject!”

Pathetic.

The candles are burning, but the smoke seems to be rising from the stack of books. Hmm… Ralph’s got some hot Christmas Eve reading material…

Fighting soldiers from the sky

Fearless men who jump and die

Men who mean just what they say

The brave men of the Green Beret

Silver wings upon their chest

These are men, America’s best

One hundred men will test today

But only three win the Green Beret

Trained to live off nature’s land

Trained in combat, hand-to-hand

Men who fight by night and day

Courage take from the Green Berets

Silver wings upon their chest

These are men, America’s best

One hundred men will test today

But only three win the Green Beret

Back at home, a young wife waits

Her Green Beret has met his fate

He has died for those oppressed

Leaving her his last request

Put silver wings on my son’s chest

Make him one of America’s best

He’ll be a man they’ll test one day

Have him win the Green Beret

LOOK at his wry smile. Who is he fooling? He lives alone. Unless he’s got Alzheimer’s. Maybe he’ll be surprised in the morning.

Ralph’s friends should really be concerned about him. Seven years ago, he found a letter in his fireplace from his son Timmy asking Santa to bring him a bike. Ralph, who lives alone, went out and bought a bike and put it under his tree for Timmy. He could have donated a bike to a charity in Timmy’s name, but he’d rather wake up Christmas morning and look at a bike that his dead son can’t ride and he probably still has in his garage to this day. (That story starts Dec 12, 2017) Ralph’s story are not touching, they’re just sad.

Ed giving Ralph the VHS tape is what “pinky-swear brothers” do…