Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – C

C is for Christmas

As I remember Christmas time, it consisted of at least five events:

1. Christmas program at school

2. Christmas program at church

3. Christmas Eve celebration with the Julius Falk family usually Harrisburg area

4. Christmas morning opening presents at home near Halsey

5. Christmas Day celebration with the O.J. Albertson family usually Eugene, but sometimes Florence

    I can remember one school program when I was to have the narrator part telling about the first Christmas. But that year there was a big flood and our school program was cancelled, so I missed out on my big acting opportunity.

    It seems like at both school and church programs each child present would received a paper sack with an orange, chocolate drops and hard Christmas candy.

    Christmas time was also the time when my Dad would bring home a sack of chocolate drops. They had assorted flavors and he seemed to really like the chocolate centers. So my brother and I would take a tiny bite from the bottom edge of the chocolates and if it was a chocolate center, we would put that back to save for my Dad.

                                   My brother and me

GIFT GIVING

    We exchanged gifts with the Paul Quimby family at Halsey and Roy & Grace Bond from Glide. As I remember it, very often Uncle Roy & Aunt Grace would send us a box of chocolate covered cherries. I did like to see their package come in the mail.

    For the Falk family at least in the later years, we drew names, adults with adults and children with children. As I was the oldest grandchild, there came a time where I needed to decide if I would draw with the adults or with the children. For the Albertson family, we tended to give gifts by families. However we grandchildren usually received a gift for ourselves also. My Dad took some home movies of the Christmas celebrations in the late 1940's, so it is fun to look at them.

    One year my Dad bought my Mom a stainless steel garbage can, with a removable pail inside and a step-on opener. Then he let her try to guess what it was. He would give a number of hints, but she was never able to guess before she opened it. She laughed when she saw what it was.

    Some of the gifts I received over the years that I remember were: a Toni doll, an electric alarm clock, subscriptions to magazines. (such as Movie Story Magazine, Photoplay, Gene Autry comic book, American Girl) These are good memories.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – B

B is for Baseball

    When my brother was old enough (he was three years younger than me) we would play catch with a baseball or a softball. Then sometimes we would take turns pitching and trying to hit the ball with a bat. Occasionally our father would join the game.

    We didn't have television until I was in high school, but we did have a radio. I can remember many summer nights listening to the baseball games played by the Portland Beavers. Somehow I learned the rules of the games so could understand what was going on. One day one summer our family took a one-time excursion and traveled to Portland and attended a Portland Beavers game. We got to see the actual players that we had been hearing about for so long. It was so exciting. Since the game was at night we stayed overnight in Portland at a hotel. The first time I ever stayed in a hotel. I really can't remember what the room was like, but know that it was something special for me.

    I also have memories of listening to the baseball games played by the Eugene Emeralds. Since it was quite a lot closer we did attend a few more of their games.

B is for Bicycle

    My first bicycle was a used one that my father obtained from a neighbor. It was a standard size boy's bicycle. I learned to ride in our large front drive, slightly graveled, not paved. I don't remember how old I was, maybe I could look at the old home movies and figure it out. It wasn't too long before I got a new bike, girls style, and my brother got the old one. We would play cowboys using our bikes, pretending they were horses. Sometimes I would just ride by myself using the time for thinking or making up stories. We never rode very far from home but mostly rode around on the farm. We had a few very small hills to ride up and down.

Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – A

    The theme for the month of July is Identity. A part of my identity has been shaped by my childhood, so I plan to share some of my own childhood memories as I remembered and wrote them down in 2013. I used the alphabet to spark my memory, so travel with me through this alphabet of childhood memories from the 1940s and 1950s. Some letters reminded me of more than one thing, so you'll see two entries for some of the letters.

A is for Apple     

    Our family orchard had two apple trees, a Baldwin and Red Delicious. The Baldwin was an earlier apple and was good for cooking. My Mom would make apple pie from both kinds of apples, but the Delicious was not as soft when cooked. My Mom would make applesauce, usually from the Baldwins. She would core them, then without peeling them would use the Foley food mill.

    But my  favorite apple dish that my mother would make I called baked apples. When she wrote down the recipe for me she called it: Baked Apple Pudding. I especially liked it because she seemed to always make enough so there was some left for school lunch the next day.  Here is her recipe:

Baked Apple Pudding

1/3 c. flour, 2/3 c. sugar, 1/3 c. butter, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 

Mix these ingredients to a crumb. Bake apple halves or quarters with crumb sprinkled on top in 375° oven till tender 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup water or orange juice depending on size of pan. 

                          

 A is for Aunts

    If you asked me to name my favorite aunt, I would say that I couldn't pick a favorite. I liked my Dad's sisters, Aunt Vida and Aunt Buena. Aunt Vida was the mother to my older cousins. She lived close to us until I was about 6 or 7 years old. Then they moved to Eugene and lived next door to my grandparents. She and her first husband got a divorce so I grew up remembering her second husband Fred. I have a good memory of going to her house for Christmas. Later she and Uncle Fred got a new split-level house and my grandmother, now widowed, moved in with them. Again we did have some Christmas times a her house. I best remember Aunt Buena when she lived in Florence with her second husband, Uncle Walt. At least one year we did go there for Christmas. 

    I also enjoyed my Mom's sisters, Aunt Lois, Aunt Erma, Aunt Violet and my uncle's wife, Aunt Ruth. Aunt Lois could be so funny. My Dad said that you had to be careful and not tell her a joke on Saturday night because she might laugh in church the next day. But I felt sorry for Aunt Lois because she was divorced and one year her ex-husband took my cousin Kay for the summer and didn't bring her back. I was some years before Lois was reunited with her daughter. Aunt Erma moved to Minnesota and sent letters including tracts about her religious beliefs. Aunt Violet was fun to be around. She and her first husband Art moved to Idaho to homestead for awhile I can remember after she had married Uncle Mel going to their home for Christmas. Aunt Ruth was a nurse and she and Uncle Jerry had four children.

    I was fortunate to know some of my paternal grandmother's sisters, Aunt Julia and Aunt Lake, and some of her sisters-in-law, Aunt Ruby and Aunt Evelyn. Aunt Julia lived in Kansas, but did come to visit us in Oregon. Aunt Lake lived in Brownsville and we went to her house fairly often for family gatherings. Aunt Ruby was a cheerful person and Aunt Evelyn always looked dressed up.

    I didn't really know my other grandmother's sister-in-law, Aunt Grace, but she did send out family chocolate covered cherries for Christmas almost every year.

    A great-grand aunt that I met was Aunt Nellie, who was really my cousin, but she was married to my great-grandfather's brother. Aunt Nellie lived in Nebraska and came to visit in Oregon a few times. I can remember when she came while cherries were ripe and she so enjoyed my Dad picking cherries up high in the tree with a fishing pole.

    So I have some good memories of my aunts.