My father was a truck driver while my 3 sisters and I were growing up and he was gone most of the week. But somehow his semi always seemed to "break down" that week before and after Christmas. I think he got caught up in the season as much as us girls did. The house that I lived in all my life before I ventured away was on a street with a hill. I swear it seems now that there was constant snow on the ground from the end of Nov. 'til well into Feb. Anyway, living on a hill in a very small town had it's advantage. Dad would phone the local PD and request that the street be cordened off so that it would be safe for kids to sled on. Once the kids on the street got out there it seemed as if kids from that entire end of town got wind of it and showed up too. We would sled all day 'til dusk, on a city street no less. A rather big production was made on Christmas Eve. We would go for a drive to look at the decorations around town and when we got home, Santa had been there. If the weather made for hazardous driving (our city wasn't notorious for clearing snow off the streets) us girls would be sent on an errand to another part of the house only to eventually hear bells jingleing and a hardy HO! HO! HO! which would send us scattering to see what was happening. Often time we even heard sounds on the roof and found sleigh track through the front lawn! One tradition we had was to make home made choc. fudge. There was a huge walnut tree on the property and we always gathered those in the fall to bring in for fudge. Dad would crack them with a hammer on a brick in the kitchen while us girls picked the meat out, often eating a handful at a time (hey, a bowl full of walnuts is hard to resist!). After the mixture had cooked to "hard ball stage" the glossy goo was poured into a glass dish and then put out on the front pourch to cool and harden. Ohhhhhh the anticipation! Daddy was also big on making popcorn balls and even putting food colouring in so that they became festive. It didn't change the taste but made for some strange coloured mouths. Mom never seemed to complain about all the goings on in the kitchen. She probably enjoyed being in the living room alone for a change and watching what she wanted to on TV which was usually a Christmas Special featuring Perry Como or Lawerance Welk (hahahaha). Ahhh what I wouldn't do today to be able to sit and watch those with her tonight. I could go on and on about the childhood things but I'll skip ahead now to older years. Probably one of my favourite gifts was a currio cabinet that my fiance` got for me in 1975. I was still living at home and then after I married, mom had fallen in love with the thing and didn't exactly like the idea that I was moving it out of her living room. The marriage failed nearly three decades later but I still have that currio cabinet.
cont. on next pg
