Emerging Courageous Online Magazine- Stories
"Christmas Past" By Nell Berry 12/2/03
When I was a
child, money was scarce. We didn’t get new toys for Christmas. If we got a bag
of candy with fruit and nuts with it, that was a good Christmas for us.
I remember one
year, I must have been about eight years old, and my sister, Vi had been dating
this young fellow. Actually he was several years her senior. He had come to the
house to visit our family, of course mainly to see my sister. This was on or
around Christmas Eve.
I suppose he was
trying to make a good impression on the family because he brought some gifts. I
only remember what he brought me. It was a box of chocolates and the box was the
shape of Santa Claus. I think that was the first gift I ever received from
anyone outside the family. I kept that box for the longest time. It was
definitely the first box of chocolates I ever received.
Years later my
husband gave me a box of candy for my birthday, in the shape of a heart, because
my birthday is on Valentine’s Day. I think I still have that box somewhere
with mementos in it.
When my brother
was in the service and my Dad had gotten the first real job he had ever had in
my memory, as night watchman at the Armory in our town, my brother got a
furlough that Christmas and came home.
He arrived in
the middle of the night and the door was locked, I think. Anyway, my Dad was at
work and my sister, Dorothy and I were at home alone. This was a year or less
after my mother passed away. My sister was about fifteen or sixteen and I was
about ten. We heard someone at the door and we were frightened half out of our
wits.
We just knew it
was an intruder.
When we saw that
it was our big brother, home for the holidays, we were so thrilled; both of us
began to cry because we were so happy. He was our hero.
The first
Christmas after my brother left to go overseas, which had to be about 1941,
because my Dad had passed away the previous March, I was living with my
brother’s wife of only about six months. I actually got to buy gifts for my
sisters and my sister-in-law. I had been receiving an allowance from my
sister-in-law for doing chores after school and I had saved my money, which was
only $1.50 a week. But that was a lot of money for me, who had never received an
allowance before. I bought my sister-in-law cologne and she gave me a charm
bracelet. I was just ecstatic to receive a gift of any kind.
That was the
year the song, White Christmas came out, if my memory serves me right. Every
time we would go to town we would hear that song by Bing Crosby. I just loved
that song. Silver Bells by Doris
Day also came out that year and it too was one of my favorites.
God is so good.
He kept me all those years growing up in
I am just so
grateful to God for giving me a brother who had a good heart and raised me to
adulthood. He was only 24 years old at the time and he was not thrilled to be
saddled with a teenager. But he did it and I will be eternally grateful.
Christmas
Past-2003
Author: Nell
Berry
I am 72 years old, love to sew, cook and crochet. My greatest joy comes from writing song lyrics, poems and short stories. My husband of 53 years loves to make furniture or anything out of wood. His passion is fishing and duck hunting. He says he is going to be duck hunting when he is 85 years old, be the good Lord willing. We are the parents of four children and grandparents of nine, five girls and four boys.
*Reprinted with permission
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