ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"
ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"°"ð"
I never believed in Santa because my parents thought that belief was a bunch of nonsense. I was smart enough not to reveal what I knew to others my age tho' I always wished I had believed and envied the kids who did. We never even had a tree until 1944 when my sister and I robbed the top off of an evergreen tree from a government planted shelter belt which was planted across the middle of our sandy farm. We decorated it with anything we thought was pretty and was as proud of it as anyone who had "store bought" decorations. Of course now, we had to decide what we would put under it for gifts. My parents were as poor as church mice and my mother pinched every penny we had before spending it, so we got things from around the house and pretended they were new presents. When we were much younger my mother did buy inexpensive dolls each Christmas and they were placed on the tree at the one room school we attended two and a half miles away. One year she decided to give us doll buggy's and of course the composition dolls from the year before were ruined from our careless leaving them out in the weather in our playhouses. So what did we do but dress our cats and kittens for a replacement for the dolls. The cats soon learned to endure our playful abuse to them and succumbed to our dressing them with their ears laid far back, and you that have had cats, know what that meant. Disgraced and angry !! When we tired of the cats or they became unwilling candidates and hid from us, we decided that we would ride down the cellar in the buggies. We soon broke them down and our mother dressed us down for that for a very long time after. She never forgave us to her death for wasting her hard earned egg money. Somehow we understood that our parents were without ample funds to buy us what only a few others had. We certainly were not alone, but the difference was that most of the other parents went out on a limb and bought Christmas presents anyway. We may have been poor, but we had love to compensate for the lack of luxury. I just wish I could go back and capture just one of those days. Great memories !! Lois Caywood Guffy 12-18-1998
I never believed in Santa because my parents thought that belief was a bunch of nonsense. I was smart enough not to reveal what I knew to others my age tho' I always wished I had believed and envied the kids who did. We never even had a tree until 1944 when my sister and I robbed the top off of an evergreen tree from a government planted shelter belt which was planted across the middle of our sandy farm. We decorated it with anything we thought was pretty and was as proud of it as anyone who had "store bought" decorations.
Of course now, we had to decide what we would put under it for gifts. My parents were as poor as church mice and my mother pinched every penny we had before spending it, so we got things from around the house and pretended they were new presents.
When we were much younger my mother did buy inexpensive dolls each Christmas and they were placed on the tree at the one room school we attended two and a half miles away. One year she decided to give us doll buggy's and of course the composition dolls from the year before were ruined from our careless leaving them out in the weather in our playhouses.
So what did we do but dress our cats and kittens for a replacement for the dolls. The cats soon learned to endure our playful abuse to them and succumbed to our dressing them with their ears laid far back, and you that have had cats, know what that meant. Disgraced and angry !! When we tired of the cats or they became unwilling candidates and hid from us, we decided that we would ride down the cellar in the buggies. We soon broke them down and our mother dressed us down for that for a very long time after. She never forgave us to her death for wasting her hard earned egg money.
Somehow we understood that our parents were without ample funds to buy us what only a few others had. We certainly were not alone, but the difference was that most of the other parents went out on a limb and bought Christmas presents anyway.
We may have been poor, but we had love to compensate for the lack of luxury.
I just wish I could go back and capture just one of those days.
Great memories !!
Lois Caywood Guffy
12-18-1998
