Loading...
Times Advocate, 1995-12-20, Page 8Page 8 Times -Advocate, December 20, 1995 Feature Coal, oranges and china dolls Local seniors remember favorite Christmases of the past Beatrice Tate, from Crediton, has been liv- ing at Exeter Villa for six months. ano...We'd sit and chat and visit. That's when you seen your other relatives...1 was born in Crediton." Rea Neil, 86, is from McGillivary Township and has been living at Craigwiel Gardens in Ailsa Craig for four years. "Christmas was always a jolly time...There were eight in our fami- ly...We always had a string of pop- corn. That was the only decorations we really had. Oh, and we used to have those sparklers...We used to have those hanging on the tree. We'd light them and then they'd sparkle...We would sit for even- ings...Of course popcorn was plen- tiful ...We used to have what we called the Eaton Beauty...it was bigger than a barbie...She about 24, 26 inches tall, nice real hair and eyes that opened and closed and a real china face...Not the plastic. It was china. She had china hands was real hair, usually curly... On Christmas day...we all went on a sleigh ride. Just our family. We had a big enough family. ...They were real socks...an orange and a piece of coal...just to fill it up and candy and, you know, there'd be candy canes. We always made home-made candy...Maybe if we made three different kinds of candy, it would take a whole eve- ning. Of course, in those times we had wood stoves, not like the elec- tric today...And you had to watch .; that it didn't burn...seafoam, white seafoam. It was made of white sug- ar and you had to beat it 'till it was real fluffy...Fudge. it was white...sometimes chocolate...and we had a wire popper, not a pop- ping corn machine like today. It was a wire popper...about six by eight inches square and we put it on the stove and had to shake it...all wire...Ours was square, but you could get a round one...a long han- dle...And then sometimes we would cook just plain brown sugar and make a syrup and pour it over when we made popcorn...That was a Christmas treat...A lot of...making candy. This was really our main thing for Christmas...and to bake' donuts, Christmas cake. We never made Christmas pudding but a lot of people did. We had to make the sauce for it, make it just right, sweet enough... In them times a pair of socks, a pair of gloves or something. Moth- er did a lot of knitting...My broth- ers would all need mitts and, and she made real heavy mitts, what we call double knitting with wool and you use two yarns...The mitts would be something that they're...knitting now. You know, you carry the wool from one needle to the next and that's what made it double... We had nice Christmas paper then and ribbon and stuff like that. We had all that kind of stuff. And oranges, we only got at Christmas time...They were a specialty for Christmas...The table was set all day long with everything on it. We went and helped ourself...All the candy and granges. I don't think we had any other fruit - just orang- es, maybe apples... We almost always had goose and potatoes and turnips, Christmas pudding, Christmas cake,..We usu- ally went to an aunt's place and she'd have her Christmas cake. We'd have to taste it and my other aunt would bring hers and we'd have to taste it...We never had pie very often. It was mostly Christmas cake and pudding. And each aunt would make her own, you know, and bring it, and, as I said, we had to taste it...That's why we had so much food, 'cause everybody would bring food...All day long the food was there and you eat all day... Play cards and 1 guess we had ra- dios then too. I can't remember that but I know we didn't have no pi- "...The house was surrounded with Christmas trees, Spruce trees and we usually cut a top off of one of them and use that. There were no evergreens in the bush except what we planted. We reforested some. It wasn't too successful...too many mice...And we had a plantation wind break...There were different kinds of trees - White Pine and Scotch Pine and Spruce in that wind break...You could buy decora- tions, glass things you hang on the little hook. There were balls and something like icicles that would shine and a star you could put at the top and if you didn't you could make one out of cardboard and cov- er it with...lead oil... Some of them at school, they had candles on and I didn't like that too well. They made a nice tree but...no electric lights then. They had drills with candles, girls dressed in crepe paper and drills (with) candle light. They turned the lamps down and they went through a drill with these can- dles, one following the other around. Until about, I suppose, 10 years of age we tried to keep ignorant as long as we could and hung up the stockings. We'd get, oh, usually an orange in the bottom. Oranges were hard to come by in those times and sometimes they had grapes that were dried like raisons on stems. You'd get a picture book, de- pending on your age. A pocket knife. If you were lucky you'd get a dollar watch...It was custom for some people from Europe and Eng- land that they'd put coal in for...it was good luck and it was good warmth because it was hard to come by, heat in those...rural hous- es...Every floor had its fireplace, every apartment. My stepmother came from Glas- cow...From the earliest I remember going to grandfather's for Christ- mas. Rail fences...and the road...only three feet wide. The zig- zag fence...the sander...Four feet was on the road and snow would blow in between the fences and the road and the field might be bare... We had goose...Goose was about 14 cents a pound, turkey was about 60. Goose was far better for our tastes anyway...They had a big meal and sometimes...a nice day, why...got up and able to hunt, go out for rabbits. Every farm was fenced and there was rail fences a lot and there were all shrubs and apple trees. The birds hatched there and rabbits had young ones in there and there was Tots of them...ln the afternoon, work off some of the big stomach... We had home-made candy...saw logs three quarters of an inch in di- ameter and stripes, you know, like a barber pole and bull's eyes were hard candy. They...made the twist and they were about an inch in di- ameter...and they had color through them. I actually saw them make them years later...There was candy canes...They were later. I'm talking about childhood. Everybody burned wood around then, so there were crackling fires. I always had to get wood in. Well, you were lucky you got a sleigh...We had to move all winter with sleighs if there was snow, bob sleighs and a team of horses. Some people went to their relatives at Christmas if they had a family of four or five, why, they'd have to. There's two of ua, and we could go with mom and dad and go in a cov- er, one single horse. A cover, that's what we used on the roads. In the winter time...the horse was off -set, cutter shaft were off -set so that they always went opposite one runner, half way out on the cutter and the cutter would leave the track. The horse would still be on the road when you were meeting somebody else. Sleigh bells were compulsory as speed limits are today. There was a by-Iaw...They'd fine you if you didn't have bells on because it was a noiseless motion. ...I marvel at the way the rail- roads used to run Christmas day and you could depend on them get- ting through and they were loaded. The train crossed half -way in our farm and we were only a mile from the station...You had a reduced fare at Christmas, New Year's and the trains were very important. Every- thing arrived on time...You couldn't go by car if you had any distance to go, you'd go by train. I remember coming from halfway back in the township, meeting peo- ple at the Clandeboye station. There was five, four passenger trains a day between Wingham and London. Well, they were busy. When I was young, at Christmas time they were loaded...A butter and eggs special and market eggs, why, every station had women waiting with...eggs and crocks of butter and go to market. ...I have known neighbors that plow on Christmas day...one par- ticular year the neighbor went out and plowed with the horses...just to • say that he plowed at Christmas.- Esther hristmas." Esther Makins, 92, has been a Blue Water Rest Home resident in Zu- rich for two and a half years. She is originally from Bayfield. "...Christmas morning we got an orange on our plate and that was a big thing to have a great big orange on our plate. And then the night be- fore Christmas...we were told not to get up in the morning too early but we would wake up and we'd sneak down ..to see what was under the tree for us and then we'd sneak back again, up the stairs and we were happy then. We knew some- thing that we were getting. It was a thrill to have Santa Claus come. We would be in our early teens then, maybe 12 years old or just around that age. We grew up...where Paul Steckle lives now... Christmas was quite a thing then. All the family were there. We were younger and all the family were around us and we'd have a big Christmas dinner and we'd open all our gifts and we did it much differ- ent to what we do now. Things then, it meant so much to you to have your family around you and that you enjoyed everything you opened to the fullest extent, you know. 1t was wonderful. They were just common gifts that we had, not big things. Now, if we got a big thing - maybe we needed a new dress - well, that would be the one big thing for Christmas. We would get that dress and that would be it. We didn't get a whole lot of things. Something we needed, real- ly. Times were hard and they couldn't afford to throw a lot of money away. They had to make use of everything they had. I don't remember exactly, things that we got. We had candy and peanuts and we had lots of them. There'd be some of them home-made, some boughten...That was a big thing too to have candy because through the year we didn't have many treats like that. You know, those times were dif- ferent to what they are now. Chil- dren now I think get a lot of candy and sweets. We didn't. We weren't raised on that. We had a simpler life, much simpler life than what they have now. We had a Christmas tree and dec- orated it with popcorn, with string popcorn, round and round the tree and hang any little things that we'd find on it. I don't think we had tin- sel...l think popcorn was our top thing because we could do that and it didn't cost us anything. It made it, made it easier to handle Christ- mas. When you have a family of seven or eight, you have to be a lit- tle more careful on your treats and nowadays...things are more ex- pensive and they give the children big things, more expensive things than what we got... When mother and dad passed away, why we went to one an- other's places. The family would hold Christmas. One of their kids, you know, would hold Christ- mas...because our home was brok- en up with mother and dad go- ing...and even today I go to my daughter's for Christmas. We still hold Christmas but...we don't have the whole bunch together. We have just her family, all her family and children and then whatever's left of my family...It's a smaller do. And we often gather together and eat out for Christmas, go to a restaurant. That's what we're doing this year. We're going to a restaurant and we'll have our Christmas together and that's what we'd done last year and there was about 25 or more of us last year and it was wonderful. It was great. Just to be together is wonderful for Christmas. And then we look forward to Christmas music. We loved the Christmas music and of course the church always had a special do at Christmas time and we always went to that and we had an organ in a home and we used to play a little bit on that - not too much because we didn't have the chance to take lessons but we'd fool around a bit on the organ and sing Sunday after- noons. We'd sing all the Christmas hymns. Just a little accompaniment from the organ was enough... When I got married, there was quite a few my age went out Christ- mas carolling and they do that to this day but I'm out of it now. There'd be maybe eight or 10 come to our home every Christmas and stand outside and sing two or three pieces and to this day, that's carried on. It's ail over...and that's wonder- ful. We used to enjoy that. We'd go out and listen to them. If it was a very cold night, we'd invite them in if we could get them in, a bunch of them, and we would all have a nice, half hour together. It was very nice... Our son, when he was little, he would go downstairs in the morn- ing. We slept upstairs and he'd bring his gifts up to us, to our bed and show us what Santa Claus brought him. It was very cute to see him do that, you know. He didn't realize that we knew everything but it was really nice to have him do that. I can still see him coming up the stairs with his hands full of lit- tle gifts and he'd put them on our bed and open them and he would be so happy. That is a nice re- membrance. I remember that....Christmas, we kept it as a sa- cred time. That was one thing. We didn't go do anything out of the way because we thought that was a special day..." Winona Jacobi, 84, is from Cromarty and has been a resident at Queensway Nursing Home in Hensall for about one year. people. We were all day doing dishes. You'd clear one table, then you'd start another. We had fowl, but it all meant a lot of dishes. ...We had an old piano down home and I can't play the piano. My husband and several of my sis- ters are really good. And they had, step dancing too. We usually just played euchre... My dad was the youngest, and there was 12 in that family and he says everybody talks but nobody listens. ...I'm not too sure where they got the tree from. You'd have so many people, you'd have a lot of gifts. We strung our popcorn and we col- ored our popcorn...We generally put the gifts all on the tree...to open all together. ...I remember my fat pig! A live pig...No, a piggy bank. Had a mark er on the top. You put your coppers in. We just had coppers at that time...Times have changed so much since then. Coppers...buy nothing now. But that time, you see, we had a few coppers. Somebody would give you some coppers too because you know, we appreciated money... I'd always wanted a dolly. We had lots of dolls but they were rag dolls...Anyway, Saturday night my father went to Mitchell...(for) a gift for me because I was sick at the time in bed. And I woke up. I had the prettiest doll you (have) ever seen laying beside me. It was sleep- ing. Its eyes was closed...brown curly hair...It had a china face...I had china dolls before, but they had just a china face...It had real. curly hair...Well, it looked real to me. I thought the doll was wonderful he- cause...that time I was sick in bed I combed her hair and combed her hair so many times and so her hair all fell out! My mother made a tam for it (to) cover its head... We had a long lane down home, a great, big long lane. By the time you got down that long lane. you (had) done pretty well. Sometimes it made a tunnel...out the gateway where you get into the barn- yard...We went into town quite of- ten in the winter time...We lived a few miles from Hensall... My uncle, he was a mail- man,...Instead of buying a horse he used to get old Dexter ,from the farm...We only lived a mile and a quarter from church. or I guess I should say a mile... They'd come. anybody would come because it didn't matter. We had a whole house full anyway. A few more didn't make any differ- ence. We had 12 kids down home and a total of a family of 40. When my brothers and sisters got mar- ried, they all had big farnilies too and we all go together at Christmas time, one day of the year for Christ- mas down home...We mostly would gather at Christmas time. The kids looked forward (to) when they got their toys." Katie Boughton, 73, was born in Brantford and has been a resident at the Lucan Retire- ment Home for seven months. "I remember... -y had a big fam- ily for Christmas. They had any- where up to 10 people...We had be- tween 50 and 60, 100. A lot of "...when it was hard times we got a piece of coal and nowadays if you give a child a piece of coal, they'll wonder why. You know, they don't know what happened before these Christmases. It's getting too com- mercialized, anyway. They forget the real meaning, 1 think. ...Well, we always had an old ce- dar tree. My father would go out and get the silliest looking cedar tree but we thought it was beautiful then...It was pretty nice. That's all he could afford...no fireplaces so we had long, wool stockings...no leotards then so we hung them on the backs of chairs... But we were just as tickled pink running down the stairs to get that orange and candy and a piece of coal every Christmas. ' We put it back in the coal pile down in the cellar, I guess...Always a big orange. But we had a good time. My father and mother were good to us kids. I got married in 1945 when Max came back from overseas. He re- turned from W.W. 11 and then I had Michael right off the bat. We had a good Christmas that Christ- mas because he was spoiled rotten. ...And, you'll never know what his father went out and bought him and brought it up to the hospital - a fire truck he could ride in!...But I had another son in '49 and the two of them could play with it but I kept it for years...He came in and he had it under his arm and the head nurse said, 'You can't go in there, Mr. Boughton.' He says, 'I'm going in ,to see my wife and then I'm going to give my son this fire truck whether you like it or not.' ...Christmases after that living in Brampton there, they were pretty lean and one Christmas we couldn't afford nothing. But we managed to get the kids a present each and they came down the steps and Michael and Brian (said) 'Is that all we're getting?' That just about floored both of us, you know, 'cause we scrimped and saved to buy one each. so I remember that Christ- mas. ...I've always spent Christmas with my daughter. Donna, hut I'd left the retirement home to go and live with them because they were moving up here...I've always spent Christmas with Donna...She'd bake for weeks...And she always had her brother up that was in Toronto. ' He'd always come for Christmas with us to see me and then stay but she made sure he was always there for me. Michael and them. they had their own family. They had their own Christmases...And when the kids did come up to see me on Christ- mas day she sent them home with boxes of all this baking she'd done...But she'd always had me. This is the first year I won't he there. I'm going to my other son's this year... Last Boxing Day...Brian was sup- posed to come for Christmas and we waited and waited and no Brian...Donna said,'Oh, mom, he'll be here.' but he phoned at 4:00 and supper was just about ready. He says, 'I can't get a ride.' He didn't have any wheels, so...We had our Christmas dinner and we had our Christmas morning. We had a good time... But then on Boxing Day, I got up as usual with my housecoat on and sat there and had coffee, a cigarette and...I'd seen Donna making...this thing on the cupboard and I thought, 'We must be having com- pany, hut I never said nothing until around half past 12. She says, 'Mom, you better do your hair. or something. Lisa, make sure Gram - ma's got on nice clothes. Put on that red and white blouse.' So I did. And then I went back out and had another coffee and...knock on the door...So Donna went and she said, 'Well, for heaven's sakes, what are you doing here?' Here, all my fam- ily had come with their kids and wives and everything - Boxing Day, of course! We cried, you know. So David came up to me...and he said, 'You're supposed to he happy.' I says, ' I am.' He says, 'Well, you wouldn't tell it.' But they were all there...There were four generations in the house that day. ...We made one mistake one time. We went to bed and first thing in the morning - young Billy, he was only a young whipper -snapper then. (He said) 'Gramma! I think Santa Claus is coming!' I said, 'Well, let's get up.' So, the two girls (came) and we sat around the kitchen table and Donna and Bill's bedroom was off the kitchen. So Billy says, 'Sing a song, Gramma.' So we started singing, 'We .vish you a merry Christmas...' The door of the bedroom opened, my daugh- ter came out and she says, 'What are you doing up this early in the morning? Get to bed!' I said, 'Does that mean me too?' She says, 'Yes!' So we all went to bed like little kids, you know (at) 4:00 in the morning...For years after that at Christmas they'd say, 'None of this getting up at 4:00...So last Christ- mas we got up at 8:00."