CHRISTMAS

I don’t know if this recalled Christmas is one or many compiled memories over a few years. My fragile memory of those times may have jammed them together as one, but in my early years they were much the same and they were wonderful. I only had part of the day that was a disaster for me and changed my adult life. (See below.)

My Honey and I were sitting in the living room last night, and the thought came to me that comes to us when both parents have died and would be classified as a question we forgot to ask in time. “Where did you hide the presents?”

Brother Bud and I hunted the house for presents weeks before Christmas. We were sure that Santa would come, but the wrapped presents from Dad and Mother were nowhere to be found. We got toys from Santa and clothes and stuff from Mom and Dad. Santa always put our gifts in a pile on opposite sides of the Christmas tree in the living room.

The day after Thanksgiving was the start of the Christmas season. Christmas decorations went up in the stores and the radio stations played hymns and carols. We got excited to see Santa and the store decorations at Woodward and Lothrop. The first Saturday, Mother took us on the Arnold Bus Line downtown to see Santa. The store was beautifully decorated and they had animated window displays. I don’t remember much about sitting on Santa’s lap, but I did. How else would he know what I wanted? One year I needed a pearl handled cap pistol with caps to fight off the bad cowboys at the Ashton Theater on Saturday afternoons. We always went one night to F Street in DC to see the department store window displays. What joyful excitement that month before Christmas was to Bud and me?

Christmas Eve we went next door to see Uncle Bill, Aunt Gay and Aunt Pearl, Dad’s sisters, who were renting that house until their new home was built. Aunt Gay couldn’t wait until Christmas morning to open presents so she did it the night before. She ripped open her presents with great abandonment and left only the dust of the wrappings behind. Then she would ooh and ahh over the present and go on for, too me a long time with thank you and hugs and kisses for the giver. MUSH stuff! I know now that Aunt Gay really couldn’t wait to see Bud and me open our presents. She got just as excited over our gifts as her own. Gay always had those big hot dog shaped suckers from Woodward and Lothrop. I liked the black ones best. Gay was such a love and my most unforgettable person. Our dear Aunt Gay blessed our whole family. When our oldest girls went of to collage, we would get the latest information from Gay-Pearl. They got the letters. Our eldest referred to them as, “The Ant Hill.”

When we went to bed Christmas eve, the house was totally devoid of any Christmas decorations with the exception of the dining room table with its centerpiece, which consisted of an oval mirror in the center decorated with a little snow covered village and holly. A single little wreath with an electric candle in the middle hung in the front window. We hung our biggest stockings on the mantle with great anticipation. Those were the days when boys wore stupid knickers, so we had stupid knickers socks that came to our knees which was the only time I was happy to have stupid knickers socks. Our bedroom was behind Mother and Dad’s, so when they shut the doors we were in bed and could not get up until they did. Bernadine Bollen, our live-in housekeeper, slept in the other bedroom but always went home to Toledo, Ohio for the holidays.

In the morning when we saw the house, it had been changed by a miracle beyond human belief. Santa had to have done it in his spare time. The “O” gauge train set was up and running. Our old P.R.R. - RR. (Paul Raymond Rupert – Rail Road) was beautiful on its big painted platform with tunnel, bridge over a lake, road crossings, side track with REA platform, and train barn, miniature figures and town along the tracks. Dad made it all before my memory began. The bridge was my favorite piece and was beautifully made and designed like a real railroad bridge. The tree was in place lit and decorated. Those stupid knickers socks were filled with fruit, nuts and small toys. Our presents from Santa were in our pile, and he brought most of our asked for desires. We showed each Santa gift to Mom and Dad who were as surprised as we were.

After we played with our toys, we ate breakfast. Bacon, eggs, pancakes, maple syrup, milk and hot scones was our favorite holiday and Sunday breakfast. After breakfast we opened our wrapped presents and we always got new stupid knickers, stupid knicker socks, and stupid knocker jacket. That was the only thing hard to be happy about. I always asked when would I be old enough to be able to wear long pants but I don’t remember any answers. The hard part was putting on the new clothes to see how they fit and lots of turning around to be admired by mother who thought we were above average and perfect. What a drag clothes were! Bud was above average but not perfect to me. I knew I was neither above average or perfect.

The erector set with its million parts was wonderful, but today not one piece would pass the child safety standards of today’s requirements. I am so glad we didn’t have all that nonsense when we were kids. We didn’t put things in our mouth or up our nose or in our ears. Maybe mother was right: we were above average and perfect. I loved anything with nuts and bolts. Snap together plastic stuff hadn’t been invented as yet, so all our toys were steel or wood. Bud and I had to “get along” with joint toys or lose them for a week. I must admit we weren’t perfect. The erector set was well used for many years. I loved the chemistry set but Bud didn’t, so I gave it a lot of use. I made great stink bombs. My most wonderful gift of all times was my BB gun. I still love that gun, and it shoots just as good 66 years later as it did then.

About noon we dressed in our new stupid knickers and jackets, always-brown corduroy (jackets included) for the long trip in our Huppmobile to the farm of Aunt Floyd and Uncle Leonard in Olney, Maryland to see “Ma” Lillie Ward Burns, Mother’s Ma. We arrived after they had the noon meal and left before the evening meal. Mother’s two brothers and seven sisters never once invited us to eat with them, but all would eat with us during the depression. Aunt Floyd would get Bud and me in the kitchen and give us ham and turkey sandwiches with milk without Uncle Leonard knowing. She was an angel in a hellhole to me. We just hated that trip because we had to leave our new toys and presents and go visit a grandmother who didn’t like us. I now give mother credit for her honoring her mother when my mother wasn’t liked or well received by her own mother and siblings. Mother always took a present for her that was always something Ma needed or wanted. Ma Burns had to say thank you but I don’t ever remember her doing so. She only liked her two boys but no others as I remember. She was my Christmas bah humbug. I don’t think Dad was very happy to go into that hostile environment either. That was when I promised myself that when I grew up I would never take my kids any place on Christmas day, and I don’t think I ever did. I still like to stay home and play with my toys and travel any other day is fine. Our kids wanted to travel, but they did it without me.

The question will go unanswered: where did they hide the tree, toys, and gifts before Christmas? They did the entire house decorating inside and out on Christmas Eve after we went to bed. I’m sure Dad didn’t get much sleep that night. Just setting up the train set took hours. Mother and Dad pushed Santa for all it was worth, and we really were surprised by it all. I guess that is why I still believe in Santa but not Rudolph. Rudolph is only a song by Gene Autry. He was the first singing cowboy and kissed girls, not his horse. He was not tough like Tom Mix or Tex Ritter who only kissed their horses.