The Rural Voice, 2006-12, Page 251
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not overloaded with luxuries as he
travels today." Imagine what he'd
think today!
Though life in the 1860s would
seem hard to us by today's standards,
things had come a long way from the
days when Mrs. O'Hara didn't have
time to celebrate Christmas at all.
"The week before Christmas
generally was a kind of holiday week
at the public schools," writes Green
who grew up north of Goderich. "On
the Friday before Christmas there
was examination at the school;
trustees and parents came to see what
progress their children had made
during the year. The trustees and
preachers examined the pupils, and
prizes were awarded as to standing,
every pupil getting a prize according
to his merits. The prizes always
consisted of books, and they were
highly prized in those days. Some of
the smarter pupils pupils gave
recitations and dialogues; and
trustees always gave the pupils a treat
of candies, nuts and apples, which
were also a luxury. This put the
Christmas spirit in the air and
everybody seemed to be happy.
"It was customary in those days to
have a jug of whiskey at Christmas to
treat your friends when they called;
my father generally had a jug. (You
could buy a gallon of whiskey for $1
and a keg of Wells' beer for $1.25 he
writes elsewhere.) Also my father
always had to have a treat of a can of
oysters at Christmas holidays: they
came in a can sealed like a varnish
can. I remember there were the words
'Packers, Baltimore,' on the cans.
"During the holiday week not
much manual labour was done; the
time was given over to visiting
friends and neighbours, and sports,
playing cards at night, sleigh -riding
parties for the young people, dances
at private homes and at public dance
halls — and nearly all country and
village hotels had a ball room for
dancing. I have attended many of
these old-time dances, both at private
homes and at public halls, and there
generally was plenty of beer and
whiskey, but I never in my time saw
a young girl at any of these dance
parties take a glass of whiskey or
beer. It would have been something
shocking for a young lady to indulge
in intoxicating liquor, and very
seldom did any of the boys get the
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DECEMBER 2006 21
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