The Citizen, 1989-12-22, Page 36PAGE 36. THE CITIZEN, FRiDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1989.
‘The Best Christmas Ever ’
by Lori Perrie
Grade 8, Grey.
“Heather, why do you always
pray? You know He ain’t gonna do
nothin’ for us. If He was so great,
why does He make us live in this
old shack?”
“The good Lord has His own
ways and reasons. He must figure
that something good is gonna
happen to us here.”
Heather was talking to her
six-year-old brother, Robbie. Rob
bie was blind and always very
sickly looking. He was, though a
very talented singer. He didn’t
know how to read braille or
anything, but he could always
make up a tune to hum or sing.
He wasn’t very tall for his age.
He had sandy-brown hair and a
very fine featured face. Robbie had
a pale, countenance with one end of
his lip hanging down. He wore
tattered jeans and a ripped up
t-shirt - basically old rags that were
filthy and very uncomfortable.
Heather, on the other hand, did
not always find the worst in things
like her brother. She was six years
older than Robbie, which means
she is twelve, and it was her
responsibility to make sure that he
didn’t get into trouble. He always
does and then Heather gets a
beating because her father says
that she’s supposed to look after
him.
She was lean and barely ate a
thing. Usually whatever her father
made at work ended up paying his
bar bill at the saloon on 42nd
Street. Heather too wore soiled,
foul rags, but what she had or
hadn’t, never got her down. She
was always optimistic, no matter
what the problem. Her long, bru
nette hair was always lashing
across her face, being blown by the
cold, December wind. Robbie and
herself always had to stay indoors
to keep what fire they had, burn
ing. At times, it became quite
difficult to keep it going because of
the shortage of fuel.
By now, it was just three weeks
before Christmas and Heather was
determined to get something for
everyone in her family.
For Robbie, she wanted to get
one of those colourful, wool blan
kets for him to wrap himself up in
by the fire and for her fourteen-
year-old brother, John, she wanted
to get him to have a green, plaid
lumberjacket so he wouldn’t freeze
when he went to work at the mill.
For Mary who was only two years
old, she wanted to have a doll. It
didn’t have to be big and beautiful,
just something simple for her to
play with because Mary didn’t have
any friends or anything to play
with; let alone toys, and she needs
something to do with her time
besides being cooped up in the
“house” all day doing nothing.
Now for Mama, Heather planned
on getting her some yarn and
knitting needles. She always was
Christmas of 1906
Continued from page 35
could see St. Nicholas. They said I
had to go to sleep, but if I wanted I
could leave three cookies and a
glass of milk for him, and a carrot
for the reindeer.
When I woke up the next
morning it was all gone. I was so
excited I forgot all about breakfast.
I went straight to the living room
where our tree was. I would have
loved to see my face that day, when
I saw that wooden doll. It was the
most beautiful thing 1 had ever
seen. I used to always beg father to
make it for me. I guess he just felt
like doing something special that
Christmas. I still have that doll and
it means even more to me today
than it did on that long ago
Christmas morning.
Stacy Hahn.
Grade 6, Brussels.
good at making things with her
hands. For Pa, maybe a lunch pail.
He never did have much to eat, but
maybe if he did put what he did
have to eat in it, he wouldn’t have
to stuff it into his pockets and get
scrunched up, smelly food. If he
could find a real job which paid him
a real paycheck maybe he would
use a lunch box.
Now, how could Heather go
about getting, let alone hiding, a
blanket? Maybe if she helped the
lady up the street with her spinning
and picked up all the scraps, she’d
have enough material for the lady
to spin it all together to create a
small, yet warm blanket. Robbie
would really like this, she thought.
Maybe now he wouldn’t look so
sickly and ill.
After working for the spinning
lady for a week or so, she thought
that she had enough scraps and
pieces of material for the lady to
spin them all together.
The next week, she went to a
wishing well five blocks up the
street and gathered up all the coins
beneath the frozen ice and what
little there was on top of it.
Altogether there was $7.80.
She thought her hand was going
to fall off. The water was so cold
that her hand turned red and her
fingers felt numb.
It wasn’t as cold, that day, as it
usually was, so she decided to go to
Gerrard Street to the Salvation
Army Store. That whole day was
hers. Her mother stayed home that
day with Robbie and Mary instead
of going out to look for a job so she
decided to make the best of it. At
the store, she didn’t find a lumber
jacket, but something better. It was
a thick, very warm looking, powder
blue winter coat with a hood and it
was only five dollars, twenty cents!
This was great! She had enough
money for John’s coat and and she
had money left over.
Since she had $2.60 left over, she
went and looked at the dolls. There
was a very pretty one sitting in the
window. It wasn’t very tall; actually
it was quite short but she had to
admit that even she would love to
have a doll like this. It modelled a
soft, pink dress with some frilly,
white lace around the cuffs. In
spots, it was tattered and ripped
and some of its long, flowing,
blonde hair was tatting or falling
out, but she knew it would be
perfect for Mary and that she
would take extremely good care of
it.
But when she thought of the
price. It had to be more costly. The
CHRISTMAS
GREETINGS
FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS'
Blu-mers Dressing
Room Only
Dec. 22
Men’s Night, Open ’til 10
WATCH FOR PRE-JANUARY SALES
Re-opening Dec. 28, 29, 30 reg. hours
cashier could tell by the look in her
eye that she wanted it so he walked
over and asked her if she had any
money. Of course she told him that
she did. The casher said that if
Heather were to give him what
money she had, he would let her
have the doll.
On her way home, with the
toasty, warm coat on, she was
dreaming up ways how to earn
money for Mama’s yarn and knitt
ing needles. She new that she could
go back and work for the lady who
does all the spinning and pick up
the scraps. When she thought she
had enough to make a few balls of
yarn, she asked the lady if she
would spin the scraps into yarn,
and roll the yarn into balls. Of
course she did when Heather
explained what she was doing and
who it was for.
While she was walking home,
she stepped on a twig. That gave
her an excellent idea! If she could
fine two narrow, yet long pieces of
wood, in fact twigs, she could use
one of the flat pebbled stones from
the street to work them down
smooth and to point at one end so
Continued on page 39
Yuletide greetings to everyone!
May you enjoy all that this
special season can bring!
Orchill
Farms &
Orchards
Boyd & Muriel Taylor
Walton-523-9279
Merry Christmas
and a
Prosperous
New Year
to our good friends
and customers
from the
Boneschansker
family,
HURON MARKET
GARDENS
ETHEL
The Product of Tomorrow
LARRY T. BOLGER
HOLDINGS INC.
199 Hamilton St., Blyth 523-4205