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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2013-12-19, Page 37THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2013. PAGE 37. While the Christmas season is now made great by their grandchildren, Jim and Dorothy Schneider of Auburn still remember years of lean holidays when they were just children. There is no hesitation from Dorothy, a former Women’s Institute member, a member of Auburn’s Walkerburn Club and a former Scout and Sunday school leader, when asked about what makes the holidays great. She says it’s the children. She says spending time with their grandchildren, and of course their children, is what drives their holidays now. “The kids get you in the Christmas spirit,” Dorothy said in an interview with The Citizen, “you don’t need anything other than them to help get you in the Christmas spirit. Going to church on Christmas has always been a part of the Scheniders’ lives, but as they have gotten older, their children now have their own holiday traditions, so it is often just Jim and Dorothy that attend church on Christmas. Growing up just south of Auburn, Jim, a charter member of the Auburn Lions Club, says Christmases when he was younger were a bit “skimpy” because money was tight and times were harder back then. Dorothy, who grew up in what is now Ashfield- Colborne-Wawanosh agrees, saying she can vividly remember her first holiday season with Christmas lights, and the process involved two old car batteries. Dorothy says she was about 10 or 11 years old when that happened. She said there was no hydro on her family’s Ashfield Township farm and like Jim’s childhood, money was tight and didn’t leave much room for a luxury such as Christmas lights. “I was just awestruck,” Dorothy remembers of seeing the lights for the first time, “I had never seen anything like it.” Jim says he remembers a similar Christmas with his family, saying that their first Christmas lights also came by way of car battery. His family’s farm, a mixed operation that ran self-sufficiently for the most part, didn’t get power until 1951. Adding to how lean the holiday seasons needed to be were the fact that both Jim and Dorothy came from large families. Jim was one of seven children in his family, while Dorothy was one of nine children in hers. When Jim was young, he says, Christmas morning, as it did for most farm families, meant chores before anything else. He and his siblings would rise bright and early and help their parents with the farm’s chores. When they were all done, they would come into the house and were allowed to open one present before breakfast, then the members of the family had their meal together and when they were done, the rest of the gifts could be opened. One of Jim’s favourite parts of Christmas in those days, he said, was opening his stockings. Gift-giving was different back then, he says, so opening the gifts in his stocking usually meant a new pair of hand- knit socks. It wasn’t just gift-giving that was different. Christmas dinner has also taken on a new life recently. When Jim was young, he says, turkey was rare in Huron County and was viewed as a bit of a delicacy. Duck and goose, however, were bountiful in the area, and a Christmas meal generally revolved around one of those two birds, or, as the family expanded, both of them. Because the weather tended to be worse when he was younger, Jim also remembers that there was never much travelling around in the holidays, simply because it wasn’t practical. He remembers one holiday in particular, when he was about eight or nine years old, when all of the roads were completely blocked withsnow. His father left the house with one of their neighbours andheaded for town. He told the children, to get some feed for the animals. The pair left the farm in the morning and because of the weather returned at 7 p.m. with two grain bags that were quickly stashed in thefarm’s barn.After Christmas, Jim did someinvestigating and saw that the grain bags were gone. Later his father fessed up later that because he and Jim’s mother hadn’t bought the kids Christmas presents earlier, he had to make a last minute trip. Schneiders remember lean childhood Christmases Out on the porch Jim and Dorothy Schneider, seen here in front of their Christmas displays at their home in Auburn, both remember the first year they had Christmas lights at their home farms, which came by way of car battery power in the 1950s. (Shawn Loughlin photo) 33 Main St., Seaforth, ON Office: 519-600-1577 • Fax: 519-600-1585 www.sellingseaforth.com Sherry McLaughlin Cell 519-301-2879 Maureen Wildfong Cell 519-525-9954Join us Mon. - Sat. 7:00 am - 2:00 pm Thank you to all our customers Holiday Hours: Closed Dec. 25 - Jan. 1 Call 519-887-9517 Merry Christmas Happy New Year 1862 ~ 2013 Complete Hair Care Services Specializing in Revlon, A-G, Moroccan Oil products 819 Turnberry St. S., Brussels ON N0G 1H0 519-887-9025 Rhonda McArter It's a Shear Thing Please accept this load of good cheer, along with our thanks for your business this year! Have a great holiday! Christmas GreetingsChristmas Greetings The Zahnd Team Claude Robin ph.: 519-887-6205 mobile: 519-291-8262 fax: 519-887-6031 email: claude.robin@century21.ca Kurt Keller ph.: 519-236-7874 mobile: 519-854-8081 fax: 519-236-4040 email: kurt.keller@century21.cawww.zahnd.ca Merry Christmas Before we close on another year We’d like to list our best wishes here. Along with appreciation and gratitude, too For each and every one of you. 406 Mill Street (corner of Dinsley & Mill), Blyth 519-523-4793 • www.spaessentialsblyth.com Kelly Wharton, Carla Pawitch, Katie Ansley, Ruth Feeney, Laura Kelly and Emma Wilts wish you a relaxing holiday! By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen