birdsonawire
  • Blog
  • Chirps
  • About
  • Contact

Christmas Candy -- Part One

12/15/2009

2 Comments

 
Picture
Christmas 1945 -- Cleveland, Ohio
I‘m late preparing for Christmas this year, but have been thinking back on Christmases past, mostly in my dreams.

Maybe it was Seasonal Affective Disorder and the fact that we lived pretty far north, but the holidays were always a minefield in our house, at least when I was growing up. 
I do have some warm memories, though, especially of snow, making all the long distance calls on Christmas Day to Kansas, Colorado and other places we called "home," having dinner at my cousins' house where we sometimes sang folk songs or practiced for and performed piano, violin and cello trios. The two girls were very talented, and although much younger, I was learning to play piano. Caroling was fun, but the mad dash to buy, wrap and hide gifts, wasn’t.

Looking back, here are a few Christmas presents I've never forgotten:
 

1. A doctor's kit. I believe I was 3. Looking back, I think my parents were concerned about me being afraid of all the doctors I saw over my first few years. I got off to a rocky start with a few correctable anomalies.  
The big black kit contained a toy stethoscope, thermometer, wristwatch, a certificate to hang on the wall, some sort of BP cuff and a big round eye cover, remember those? I don’t remember any insurance forms included.  


2. A bride doll. I was 4 (!). This bride was unusual because she was also a baby (not a babe). You could comb her blond hair and wash her rubber body, but she was definitely a baby, with a bride’s outfit. At 4, I didn’t have a problem with that.

3. A wooden cradle that my dad made as a bed for the bride doll. Made sense to me. I loved that cradle and kept if for many years. I assume my mother threw it out.

4. A few books, including Babar, Heidi and The Fireside Book of Folksongs. I still have what's-left-of-them. 

5. A Kodak Brownie camera. I might have been 8. One of the first photos I took was of the prettiest boat I'd ever seen. It was an ocean liner pulling out of the New York City piers as our school bus was pulling in on a class trip to the big city. The boat was called the Andrea Doria.

4. An English racing bike, when I was around 12 (?). I lusted after those sleek blue and white wheels, and couldn't believe my eyes when I found them leaning up against the wall next to the Christmas tree! We lived in the hills, so it was important to have a lightweight bike with gears to maneuver up and down.


5. A microscope. Not sure how old I was, but probably in junior high. I remember studying the Lafayette catalog for months, then traveling into the city to look at microscopes with my dad. He got me a good one and I still have it, somewhere.

6. A trip to Costa Rica. Not really. When my son was about 9, he cut pictures out of a magazine, glued them on a board, painted it and gave it to me, with a note saying, “Just what you always wanted, Mom, a trip to Costa Rica!” I think I loved that collage as much any real trip, because he tried so hard to give me something special. I still have it tucked away.

7. An engagement ring, in 2002. Dave and I had lived together for a few years and were talking about getting married, but he was dragging his feet. His son John and girlfriend came to our place for Christmas, where one of them suggested we open Christmas stockings first. As I recall, I opened mine last. Inside were a pair of sensible wool socks, some goofy earrings, a few candy canes, and finally a tiny sparkly box wedged into the sock’s toe. I figured it was a trick, but Dave had actually bought me a diamond!  We married 6 weeks later, during Valentine's week. 

What  Christmas presents and other fun things do you remember?  Please leave a note in Comments.
Picture

2 Comments
Kathleen Scott link
12/18/2009 10:48:47 am

Hi Paula, I've been checking Birds daily since your beautiful snow post. I wanted to see how you are and how New England prepares for the holidays.

Love your many Christmas posts, most especially this one about the engagement ring. Some people think love is only for the young...you and Dave, Denny and I and many others know that love is not an age but a blending.

One of my favorite Christmas memories is 1996. I'd started radiation & chemo (for breast cancer) at the beginning of December. By Christmas I was exhausted. Denny doesn't believe in Christmas but he took me to pick out a wonderful big tree. He helped me unpack my treasured ornaments and hang them on the tree. He loved the holiday as part of my tradition and I felt well in that love, in spite of fatique and pain and fear.

Life is a balance, we gather strength from love and live through ill and believe in the power of the day.

Reply
John Behnken link
12/22/2009 07:54:16 pm

My most memorable present was when I was about 8 years old. I loved cars and spent (what seemed like hours) staring at the 'Sizzlers Super Control Set' in whatever department store mom was shopping in at the time; memorizing every detail because I knew I'd never have it. It was a race track with little motorized cars that you 'gassed up' with a battery charger and let them race by themselves on the track. It seemed so huge and expensive that I knew it couldn't be possible. But on Christmas morning, there it was...amazing. I must have spent hundreds of hours playing with that race set.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

    NOTE: Scroll down the page. At the bottom, click on the word Previous, to continue to another page. 


    Blogger Profile

     

    Retired reporter, writer, wife, mother, stepmother, grandmother, photographer, singer, knitter, kayaker, cook, swimmer --  not all at the same time
    songbird@birdsonawireblog.com


    Follow @phbehnken

    Blog Awards
    Honest Scrap
    Kreative Blogger

    Click here for
    Swimming as Meditation



    click here for
    Martin Luther King:
    Ordinary Acts,
    Extraordinary Courage


    click here for
    Photo Postcards


    click here for
    The Day JFK Was Shot

    click here for
    The Fall of the Berlin Wall
    series 

    Archives

    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009



    Posts

    All
    1960s Sit Ins
    2010
    2010 Photos
    911
    9/11
    A Cappella
    Adirondacks
    Advice
    Age And Beauty
    Aging
    All Things Swimming
    Amazing Stories
    American Idol
    Anne Frank
    Ann Mcneal
    Anti-intellectualism
    Archer Mayor
    Art
    Arthritis
    Audacity To Believe
    Author
    Authors
    Autumn
    Babyies
    Bastille Day
    Beach
    Bears
    Beauty
    Benefactor States
    Berlin Wall
    Bill Campbell
    Birds
    Birds' Books
    Bird Sightings
    Birthday
    Bloggers
    Blogging
    Blogs
    Blue
    Bob Dylan
    Bollywood
    Books
    Bruce Hartman
    California
    Cancer
    Cell Phones
    Change
    Chile
    Chirps
    Christmas
    Circus
    City
    Civil Rights
    Civil Rights Movement1
    Civil Rights Movement2
    Civil Rights Movement3
    Civil Rights Movement4
    Civil Rights Movement5
    Civil Rights Movement6
    Civil War
    Clips
    Coffee
    Coffee Party
    Connie Wilson
    Contraception
    Contracetion
    Daisy Mayhem
    Dance
    Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness
    Dartmouth Aires
    Dealing With Physicians
    Death
    Dirty Sparkle
    Disasters
    Diversity
    Divorce
    Dixie
    Domestic Violence
    Earthquake
    Elaine Magalis
    Enjoy Yourself
    Evolution
    Fair
    Fall
    Fall Of The Berlin Wall
    Family
    Fashion
    Films
    Fish
    Flood
    Flowers
    Fourth Of July
    France
    Freedom Riders
    Freedom Rides
    Friends
    Fun
    Future
    Generations
    Genetic Testing
    George Rhodes
    Getting Had
    Getting Older
    Girls
    Going Home
    Good News
    Graduation
    Grandmothers
    Great Blogs
    Growing
    Growing Older
    Guest Art
    Guestbook
    Guest Photo
    Guest Post
    Guest Posts
    Guns
    Haiti
    Happy Birthday
    Healing
    Health
    Health Care
    Health Care Reform
    Heat
    Henrietta Lacks
    Heroes
    Hip Replacement Surgery
    Home
    Honors
    Immigrants
    Immigration
    Inauguration
    Injustice Anywhere
    James Reeb
    Jour J
    Kansas
    Kayaking
    Kennedy Assassination
    Kiva
    Knitting
    Legacies
    Leigh Russell
    Like A Mighty Stream
    Looking Backward
    Loss
    Make A Career Of Humanity
    Malaria
    Map
    Maple Sugaring
    Martin Luther King
    Martin Luther King Quotations
    Martin Luther King Quotes
    Material World
    Medicare
    Meditation
    Melting Snow
    Mentoring
    Mindfulness
    Mlk Memorial
    Mlk Quotes
    Mlm Memorial
    Mother
    Mothers
    Music
    Must Reads
    Mysteries
    Nairobi Trio
    Navigation
    New England
    New England Winter
    News
    Normandy
    Occupy Wall Street
    Overriding Loyalty To Mankind
    Pain
    Pamela Chatterton-Purdy
    Panama
    Panda
    Parenting
    Paris
    Party
    Paula Dumont
    Peace
    Photo Postcards
    Photos
    Politics
    Postcards
    Poverty
    Protests
    Ptsd
    Queen Medley
    Race
    Racism
    Rain
    Rani Arbo
    Rape
    Recession
    Relationships
    Religious Bigotry
    Rihanna
    Road Signs
    Rules Of Dreaming
    Sabrina Cohen
    Sarah Palin
    Secession
    September 11
    Service Projects
    Shakespeare
    Shine On
    Shopping
    Site Map
    Sit Ins
    Skiing
    Sluts
    Snakes
    Snow
    Social Security
    Spring
    Summer
    Surgery
    Surviving The Sixties
    Survivor
    Survivors
    Survivorship
    Susan Boyle
    Swim Group
    Swimming As Meditation
    Switched At Birth
    Tea Party
    Technology
    Ted Kennedy
    The Arc Of The Moral Universe Is Long
    The Band
    The Civil War
    The Day Jfk Was Shot
    The Great Depression
    The Sixties
    Time Goes By
    Toys
    True Peace
    Turning 65
    Tweets
    Twitter
    Unions
    Vegetables
    Vermont
    Vincent Van Gogh
    Visitors
    Volunteering
    War On Women
    Water
    Weather
    Weddings
    We Shall Overcome
    Where We6444ab37d9
    Where Were From171c5aacf5
    Where We Stand
    While We Were Sleeping
    Wilmington Vt
    Winter
    Wisdom
    Women
    Women As Consumers
    Women Bloggers
    Womens Blogs
    Womens Issues
    Writing


    Blogroll

    A Little Red Hen
    Arts & Letters Daily
    Blog of Ages
    The Boomer Chronicles
    Cab Drollery
    Can It Happen Here?
    Cogitamus
    Common Weeder
    Darlene’s Hodgepodge
    Fifty Shift
    Health Matters
    Hill Country Mysteries
    Just A Song
    Kevin MD
    Late Fruit
    Mature Landscaping
    Mindful Living Network
    Montpellier Daily Photo
    Parsley’s Pics
    Really Relative
    SW Dunn
    Switched at Birth
    The Third Third
    Time Goes By
    Two Seeds on a Blog
    Weekly Wilson

    Womens Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory
    Personal Blogs

    Paulah's bookshelf: read

    A Scattered LifeMurder in the MaraisA Girl Like YouThinner Thighs In Thirty YearsBy NightfallMurder in Passy

    More of Paulah's books »
    Book recommendations, book reviews, quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists


    Local Food and Local Farms

    free counters