Expectations for Christmas Eve blown away

Bloomington, Indiana – It was Christmas Eve and it was midafternoon in downtown Bloomington. The holidays in southern Indiana did not feel very much like that.

Some stores and restaurants that could have been open on Christmas Eve were closed since it fell on a Sunday. The mid-60s temperatures did not make things any better.

The pavements were deserted. In the block between Walnut and Washington, on 6th Street, there were just three lonely cars parked.

The day was going very much as planned.

The silence was then broken. A trombone’s thunderous tone reverberated off the old brick buildings around the courthouse plaza.

Not quite classic Christmas music, but a complex jazz improvisation was now filling the air.

But hold on.

The catchy tune of “Frosty the Snowman” may be heard even by an inexperienced ear beneath the elaborate phrasing.