Christmas
Rarely was there snow on Christmas. Hurricane didn't really get snow, and if they did, school was let out so that the kids could play in the snow before it melted.
Warner: "I always started thinking about Christmas in the fall when the Sears catalog came in the mail.
It was really thick and had colored pictures of all the toys. I would pour over that catalog picking out what I wanted for Christmas. Once there was a Mountie Costume in the catalog with the hat and the red jacket and everything. I just loved that outfit. Of course, asking for that was like asking for a Rolls Royce but it was fun to dream.
Mother would always try to make Christmas special. Sometimes she didn't have a lot of money. Our stockings were usually filled with candy, nuts, and sometimes an orange. There were always pine-nuts in the stockings. I remember once I got a BB gun which had been Blair's old one. His initials were carved in the handle. When I was about fifteen, I got a leather jacket for Christmas. I loved that jacket and
wore it everywhere. Once Gordon sent home juicy fruit gum and lifesavers for Christmas. That was really special because it was during the war and you couldn't get things like that.She made divinity, caramel candies, and popcorn balls when she could. She also made really good fudge and all of it on a wood burning stove. She would make molasses candy from sorghum and then the kids would pull it like taffy.
We would pop popcorn that we had grown in our garden. After the corncobs dried, it was Arlington and my job to get the kernels off the cobs. You would hit them against each other until you got a row out and then it was pretty easy. Mother would make an envelope out of screen by folding it in half and sewing the two ends together then she would put the kernels in the bottom. We would shuffle it back and forth across the wood burning stove top and suddenly the kernels would pop and the screen would grow bigger and bigger.
Dad would take Erwin's truck to Little Creek Mountain and cut a tree and then we would decorate it. The icicles were tinsel icicles that were very thin, long, and full of static. Every year we had to put them on one at a time and then when Christmas was over, we had to remove them carefully and save them for the next year. I remember coming home from the show house after work and walking into the house and the pine scent would greet me at the door. The tree always smelled so good and made the whole house smell that way. Mother would always decorate it really pretty with bubble lights on the tips of the branches. All of the light would be out in the house and the tree just sparkled.”
Arlington: " I remember she made carrot pudding. She always made it for Thanksgiving and I think for Christmas also. We always used to visit other people on Christmas, family and friends".
Warner: Yes, and on New Year's mother always had another gift for us. She would fill our stockings again and then give us one more toy she had held back to make New Year's special."
There is a family story about Gordon and Blair. One year they got up earlier than anyone else and opened all of the presents under the tree and then when they were done, they went across the street to Elwood Spendlove's home and opened all of theirs.
Warner: I remember someone got a monopoly game for Christmas one year. I don't remember who it was but the whole family sat down and played the game. I was really little but they let me play anyway I'm sure with a lot of help. It was really fun.