Village Squire, 1975-12, Page 12now, many gifts were tied securely and
mailed well before Christmas so they would
-be sure to arrive in time.
Bringing home the tree was a joyful
. occasion. If there were school age children in
the family, the tree was cut in the family
woodlot with all the children dancing about in
high glee. It was loaded on the sleigh and
pulled home by the horses generally on a
Saturday, but sometimes it was just dragged
home by the children.
Decorating the tree was another thing.
How different it is today when we have hydro.
Tinsel streamers and icicles hung from the
branches. Popcorn was strung on strings and
were used to decorate the tree. Walnuts,
painted with silver and gold paint, were
another form of decoration used in those
days.. Ribbon bows were often tied to the
branches- as were Christmas ornaments.
Christmas cards were sometimes used as
decorations and always a large shining star or
an angel topped the tree. We had no
glittering colored lights as today but how we
loved our Christmas tree!
In addition to the six girls and two boys of
his own, Grandfather also undertook to bring
up three nephews and a niece when their
parents died young, but these had all married
or moved away to find work. One daughter,
Ellen, was married to a school principal
almost four hundred miles away and now two
unmarried daughters presided over Grand-
father's household as Grandmother had
passed away some years before. For many
years Grandfather lived on a farm. (How else
could he raise twelve children even in those
days.) He had also carried on a very
successful insurance business covering an
area from Lucknow to Seb-ingville and
Exeter. He made his rounds by horse and
buggy and was often gone for two weeks at a
time but now he lived in a small southwestern
Ontario village which maybe boasted twenty
houses, a cheese factory, two small general
stores and a church and school. It was also
considered very fortunate because it was on
the main line of the Grand Trunk, later
Canadian National Railroad, to Goderich.
Four trains a day passed through the village.
One bought his ticket at the corner store,
walked up the village street, climbed up the
embankment and raised the semaphore.
Travel was simple in those days. From the
small one roomed station in which the section
men lit the fire every morning, one could
depart practically to the ends of the earth.
When visitors were expected at night, their
friends met them with a lantern and what a
welcome sight that lantern was at the end of
the road
Mail also came by train in those days and
the kindly old postmaster, who was also
general merchant, ticket seller and Sunday
school superintendant, as well, met the train
to collect the mail, with a small wagon in
summer or a child's sleigh in winter, often
one of the small children of the village
perched atop the load and went along for the
ride.
Grandfather carried on his insurance
business, although at greatly reduced scale,
until his death at eighty-five. Neither did he
retire entirely from farming. He had a small
acreage which stretched from the highway to
the railroad embankment. On this small
allotment of land he kept two cows, a pig, a
pony which he used for transportation and
GIFTS FOR
THE HOME...
•pictures & wall decorations
*lamps & cushions
*bathroom accessories
•bedspreads, table linens
Trend INTERIORS
151 Main St. W., Listowel
10, VILLAGE SQUIRE/DECEMBER 1975
some speckled black and white hens. The
entire front yard of the house was devoted to
flowers. The rest of the land provided
vegetables for the table and kitchen waste to
feed the animals. He had a grape vire, a
cherry, apple and pear trees, a large rhubarb
patch and currants and gooseberries: No.
strawberry patch was deemed necessary as
the villagers picked the wild fruit on, the
railroad embankment and the berries though
small were delicious. The writer well
remembers the cream from the Jersey cow
which would not pour and had to be spooned
from the pitcher over the berries and into the
tea. Such was the• setting for our annual
Christmas celebration.
• At last the great and eagerly awaited day
arrived. Children were up at the crack of
dawn to open the presents found under the
Christmas tree or with which the stockings
were stuffed. No work, except the necessary
chores, was ever done during Christmas
week. By eleven o'clock everyone was
dressed in theiy best and ready to depart,
loaded down with gifts. All the ladies took
their aprons as they all helped with the
serving and their cleaning up afterwards. As
Grandfather did not have room for the horses
in his stable, Father deposited us at
Grandfather's house and stabled the horse or
horses at the church shed about a block away.
Highways were not plowed in the winter in
those days.
What delightful aromas drifted in from the
kitchen and presently it was time to go for the
mail. The corner store stayed open for an
hour or two even on Christmas Day. When
the noon train whistled up the track we
children joyfully departed for the post office,
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