Merry Christmas to Everyone here on the Digest. I thought I would share some wonderful Christmas/Winter memories from a 70 year old who grew up in a very small midwestern town back in the 50's. It is almost 11 p.m. and I just came in from shoveling three inches of beautiful soft white snow. It is an absolutely beautiful winter night here in Wisconsin. As I was shoveling my mind took me back to the days when I was young and I thought about all the things I did that were so simple yet so much fun.
I remembered the winter nights when my friends and I would jump on the back of a hay wagon on a cold crisp winter night. There would be either a horse or a tractor pulling us throughout the country side. We would end up at someone's home where we would have treats and piping hot chocolate covered with marshmallows. I remember the small ice skating pond in town where there was an old warming shack. We would gather there on winter nights and skate until our ankles could no long hold us up. At Christmas time we could hear Christmas carols playing from a speaker attached to telephone pole on the corner of Main Street. On a Saturday close to Christmas, Santa Claus would come to town and our village hall was filled with children as we gathered to sing songs and see movies. When the movies ended Santa appeared and we each received a brown paper bag that contained an apple, a popcorn ball, peanuts, and assorted loose hard Christmas candy. Christmas Eve always meant the Christmas program at church and again I would be with my family and friends. Following the program we would place gifts under the tree for our minister and again we would receive a bag of goodies from the church. When we were real young our mother would have us write out letters to Santa and then we would send them in to the radio station. Every night at five o'clock, we would turn on the one and only radio and we would listening eagerly to hear our letter read. The next day at school we were all excited when we heard our friends talk about hearing our letters. We had no malls or large box stores to go to for shopping. My mother would order our gifts from the Montgomery Ward and Alden's Christmas catalogs and the only shopping us kids could do would be at our local drug store and hardware store. Of course we had very little money but we did manage to buy a few small items for our parents. I doubt very much if any of these activities would mean much to young people today. But they meant the world to me all those years ago and the fact that I still remember them vividly means they mean a lot to me today. I would love to hear other memories from you good folks. Please share some of your best memories of growing up in a different time and place. -- Ken Anderson The Mayberry Guru 2906 May Street Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701 www.themayberryguru.com www.mayberryreflections.com _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.wbmutbb.com/
