Christmas – How it used to be.

In my growing up years it was a different world than we live in today – maybe you could say the same thing.  Here at the Windy Knoll we were secluded – we could not see another house, we had no car and no electricity.  At one time we did have a telephone and our ring was two shorts and a long.  Of course, it was a party line and there were no secrets.

The tree was put up about two weeks before Christmas and since it was a live tree it started to shed in a hurry.  We walked through the woods during the year keeping an eye out for just the right young cedar tree.  Decorations were sparse and were saved from year to year.  We had a red paper rope or two and a tinsel to drape around the front.  We had Sweet Gum trees in the woods and I would pick up the Sweet Gum balls, dip them in a flour and water mixture and hang them on the tree.  I cannot remember saved ornaments – there were none.  Sometimes I would make a chain from construction paper cut in strips.  John’s family made popcorn garlands.  Now a big problem was the saved icicles.  They were always entangled and what a mess to try to separate.  After much frustration, sometimes I would throw a wad on and you can imagine what a sight that was.

Now for the gift wrapping – sometimes we had a purchased thing or two to wrap (no doubt it had been ordered from the Sears and Roebuck Catalog).  However, my siblings were teenagers when I was born and were out on their own when I could remember.  We had pretty white sacks and made pillow cases embroidered and with maybe crocheted edging.  Another good thing to make was an apron.  Back then items like that were starched and ironed and aprons were worn.  Today we seldom see cooks wearing aprons.  In those days washing was not easy to do and the apron protected the dress front and if you saw company coming you could jerk it off and dust a little with it.

Wrapping paper was saved from year to year.  Pretty bows were nonexistent back them and ties were sometimes used using yarn saved from some project of other.  About the only paper was red or green tissue paper and we heated that old smoothing iron in front of the fireplace and tried to press the wrinkles out of the tissue paper.   You can imagine what pretty sight that was.  Boxes, too, were saved items. Even after I was married and lived in Georgia this family had one box that floated around the family — it was a large box from Rich’s Department.  The person who got it knew to take care of it and pass it along to somebody else next year.  One year I got a pretty sheet with pink rickrack on it in the special box.

Memories are so special to have and enjoy with our style of country living.