The Rural Voice, 1977-12, Page 26The nostalgia boom has used up the Roaring 20's. the Dirty
30's and 1940's and settled, for a time at least, on the Fabulous
50's.
The Fonz, ducktail haircuts, greasy kid's stuff, rock and roll,
all of it is a fond remembrance of the era. Just what vias so great
about it all. Frankly, not that much, unless you happened to be
growing up in that era. 1 was.
Probably the most formative years of my childhood were in the
fifties. 1 came into them at the rich old age of three and passed
out at the doorstep of the teenage years.
don't suppose there was anything special about Christmas in
our neighbourhood in those days. It started for 'the kids, as it
ah.ays has, in early October when the Christmas catalogue
arrived from one of the mailorder houses. Each family had its
ox.n favourite. Many had the famous Eaton's catalogue but my
mother, after several disputes with Eaton's over mixed up orders
over the years had switched to Simpsons. Whichever book came
into the home it '. as sure to be the best read book in the house ih
the coming months. After a fey: days. any child worth his salt no
longer needed to leaf through to find what he wanted, he could
go straight to the page from memory and tell you the price and
y.hat colours any particular toy came in.
By Christmas. part of the catalogue vias little more than
coloured confetti. That. of course was the first portion, the part
that always had the toys. The back of the book with such tedious
things as pyjamas. fancy dishes and power tools, was. strangely,
nearly as good as ncy:.
After memorizing your own catatogue.it was a special thrill to
visit a friend v. hose parents dealt with the other company.
Somehow the nee. and fresh appeal of the other company's
product made you v.ish your parents were with that company
instead.
Recess at school was a time of comparing notes of what was
being ordered for Christmas. Listening to some classmates it
soon became obvious that Santa Claus was going to need the key
to Fort Knox and a sleigh the size of a Mac truck just to fill their
order.
That. of course. y:as in those precious years after being old
enough to go to school and before reality set in. Earlier, I
remember with some embarassment my ignorance of the whole
Santa Claus game. A cousin came to visit when 1 was. 1 imagine,
about four or five. it vas just before Christmas and we began to
compare notes as to what y:e wanted for Christmas. We'd both
been through the catalogue and made our selection. But, horror
of horrors for me, he had chosen the sante thing as me. I burst
into tears and it took parents on both sides a good while to
convince me that both of us could get the sante toy. that Santa
didn't have just one of each kind. Even then. 1 think 1 wasn't
quite sure I v.asn't being conned, but luckily. Santa delivered the
goods on the big night.
School, of course. is the beginning of the end as far as the
secret of Santa goes. Sonic of my fellov.s, of course. started
sov.ing doubts early. but as long as the majority of us clung to
our belief, then the doubters '.ere wrong and v:e were right. But
every year. the number of believers shrunk and the ranks of the
non -believers s'.cllcd. Soon. even a romantic country boy like
me had to shed his faith in the story he had been told as a child.
Some modern psychologists yarn that parents should never
inspire that faith in the first place. that when the child faces the
reality of Christmas he will resent his parents for their deception.
I. I think. loved my parents for that gift of belief, perhaps the
greatest gift any child is given. Instead of hating them, it was the
y.orld, that 1 hated for not making the story so.
1 don't •remember when the dawn of reality came exactly.
probably about grade three or four. but I remember 1 clung to the
tradition as long as 1 could. Children today. 1 think have their
illusions shattered at a much earlier age than we in the fifties and
feel sad for that. I wish that my children could keep that wonder
of the Christmas eve magic as long as possible.
School, of course, meant other things at Christmas. It meant
for one thing Christmas concerts. Unlike most country children
in the,fifties, we on our concession (or line as we called it) were
bussed to school in town because our neighbourhood school had
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THE RURAL VOICE/DECEMBER 197731G.25.