I was recalling some offbeat Christmas stories with folks when I recalled on how my mother and I had dinner at the Golden Buddha on Harper near Whittier on Detroit's NE side on Christmas Day '82. We were both between marriages at that time. Our family always got together on Christmas Eve, so we were open on Christmas Day.

It was sort of like the ending scene in "A Christmas Story" minus the singing waiters.

Is the Golden Buddha on Harper still open? In the '90s, I had a similar situation on Christmas Day and ended up at the Windsor Casino, where unlike in Michigan, cocktails are served. My mother, then remarried, said I should have called, that her and my step father would have liked to have gone to a casino on Christmas Day.