II. Holidays
1. How did your family celebrate
Thanksgiving? Christmas? Easter?
A.
Let’s see. For Thanksgiving, we would sometimes drive down to Iowa. Aunt
Clemmie always came over. There were always people over. There was a big dinner
with turkey, sweet potatoes, all of the usual stuff. Afterwards, everybody took
a nap, then there would be card- playing and games later that night. Christmas
had less decorations than now. There were two poinsettias and three little
wreaths that Mother hung on the window shades and that was it. There was a
Christmas tree in the corner. On Christmas Eve we’d open the presents and hang
the stockings on the fireplace for Santa. I always got an orange and peppermint
candy [in the stocking]. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Willis often came over. One
Christmas, I got an Erector set. It was the Ferris Wheel. My father and Uncle
Willis built it and then a windmill and were building something else when my mother
said “Enough! It’s Jeans.” Sometimes everybody would go tobogganing on the golf
course. Santa didn't come after I was eight. My mother said matter-of-factly
that Santa wasn't real. Of course, I had known by then, having come across a
cupboard filled with my old slippers – Every year I would leave my old slippers
out and lo and behold there would be a new pair in the morning. Easter – well,
there was the bunny. I usually got a stuffed animal of some sort and candy.
There was the new spring outfit. I remember, in high school, I got a blue wool,
two piece suit with a coat and a hat that had a veil. It was very fashionable.
Invariably, the weather was awful. The celebration started on Wednesday. Many
of my friends would come to school with crosses on their heads from mass. There
was no school on Good Friday. The whole town shut down from one ‘til three in
the afternoon. Ideally, people went to church during that time.
Large Weasel - I don't seem to have any pictures that represent Mom's holiday memories. Anybody else have any they would like to share?
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