Christmas story based on a true family event about real people

Real Santa, A Wonderful Sister and A Good Hearted Man
Our family had moved from town where my father had a steady job in 1941 to the farm where he and his four sons worked hard from sunup to sundown with little or no income until harvest in the fall. That was often meager and had to last until harvest the following year. There was little or no money left after buying necessities for the family, food staples, clothes for the kids, medicines and supplies for the farm.
Gay and I were still very young the Christmas Santa Claus almost missed our house. My brothers were too old for Santa Claus and our sister, June was a grown up young woman with a car and a job in town at the bus station. She usually arrived home before six o’clock in the afternoon. That day she was late. No telephone lines had been run out our way at that time, so June couldn’t call home.

Mother cooked supper as she always did but she told Daddy she was worried about June. “She is never this late coming home. I hope nothing happened to that old car. She could be stranded out on the road somewhere.”

We lived ten long miles from town with hardly a house to be seen on the road for the last six of them. The night was cold and dark. Few people would be on the road in automobiles. After all, it was Christmas Eve and most farm families would go to bed early.

The boys finished their evening meal and Mother washed dishes after she had carefully filled a plate and put it in the oven for June. Daddy settled down with his Albany Herald newspaper. No one knew that Mother had two reasons to be worried about June’s late homecoming. She didn’t fear so much that June had become a victim of a crime or that some evil had befallen her. Life was far safer in those days. If the car had broken down, as it had done before, June could stay in town with a friend. But this night, Christmas Eve, June was bringing precious cargo. Unless she made it home Mother knew there would be two very disappointed little girls when they looked under the Christmas Tree the next morning.

It grew late, nine, ten o’clock and everyone had gone to bed except Mother.She sat by the lamp trying to read and not worry. She had made chocolate fudge for Christmas day. She had a big meal planned for the family, but Santa Claus was supposed to bring two pretty baby dolls with eyes that opened and closed. She knew Gay and I had been dreaming of those dolls for weeks.
We never had toys from a store except at Christmas when Santa brought them. Mother was afraid that this year she was going to have to divulge the secret of Santa and admit the reason there were no baby dolls.
She read until her eyes would not stay open. She dozed off, her head resting against the back of her chair.

Money was scarce that year as it had been since the family moved to the farm. Mother had put the dolls on lay-a-way at Grant’s. June promised that she would pick up the toys when she got her paycheck on Christmas Eve.

With the toys in her car, she truly felt like Santa as she started for home. Before she made it out of town, however, the car began to stall at every stoplight. June turned around. She didn’t want to take a chance. She headed for Frank’s Garage where she found the mechanic still there. He listened to her story and though he was about to close up, he took pity on the pretty girl. While she sat for hours in his drafty little office he managed to fix up the old car. “I think you will get home okay now,” he told her. June had climbed in and headed out, thankful she could be there before morning.
“Mother, what are you doing up?” June stage- whispered as she tiptoed in with two big packages in her arms.

Mother jerked awake and jumped up to meet her daughter. “What on earth happened, Honey? I was worried to death.”

“That darn car. I’d still be in town if I hadn’t found a good-hearted mechanic. He hated to see me stranded and unable to bring home gifts for my little sisters.”

Mother took the packages from June’s hands and said, “ Come in here and eat your supper. You must be starving.”

After June ate her leftovers, mother and daughter took the dolls, one dressed in pink and one in baby blue, from the boxes and set them up under the tree. They placed a tiny tea set between them. Both smiled as they imagined the looks on the children’s faces.
Thanks to a kind mechanic who worked on the night before Christmas, and a loving big sister, Gay and I awoke to find we had not been forgotten and Santa had brought us the special presents we wanted.

Christmas Time With Loved Ones

The above photo was taken with Barry's family in 2006. We got together for Christmas at Norman's Landing in Cumming, GA. We missed that family party this year. Barry was ill and we could only stop for a few minutes to say hello as we drove on back to the mountains. We both missed this annual Christmas gathering.

My brother-in-law is a delightful Santa Claus who systematically gives out presents one at the time and we linger over gift openings, taking photos and enjoying each gift opened by either of the four of us. Neither couple has children, so the four of us, Gay, Stu, Barry and I, always spend Chistmas together. What a beautiful time we share with lots of love..

On Christmas Eve we attended their church where they sing in a large and excellent choir. This year seemed to be the most beautiful candle light service of all those we've been to at this church.

With the help of nieces and spouses we served a wonderful repast on Christmas night and enjoyed giving our gifts to "my favorite baseball player" who is eleven now. And he taught me how to play tennis on his Wii, which I had never seen before. Now I want my own Wii. They aren't just for kids. I was amazed when my tennis skills came back to me after all these many years. It was thrilling to play a sport I once enjoyed when I was young. But on the Wii, my quickness on my feet was not important. My eye hand coordination was sharper than I would have expected. It was lots of fun.

Christmas Day, Love and strange gifts for kids

December 25, 2008

Today begins the twelve days of Christmas. We began our celebrating and gift giving today.Tomorrow we shop for the presents we wanted under the tree.



Family gathered today and as always we laughed, ate good food, and told stories. Only two of my siblings were with me, my two sisters, but down in south Georgia and North Florida my three brothers enjoyed the holiday with their children and grandchildren.



Once many years ago, there were seven of us who gathered at the "big house" where my parents lived. One of my brothers who couldn't imagine Santa coming anywhere except at that house, brought his boys down early on Christmas morning to see what was under the tree. This brother usually gave his kids some live pet or animal.

One Christmas Eve after Mother, Daddy and my sister and I were in bed and sound asleep, Daddy said he awoke to a noise. He recognized the sound but had no idea why it was coming from the family room of our house. He lay there a minute or two and when he heard the bleating of a goat, he smiled and relaxed. Santa Clause had evidently brought a billy goat for Christmas.



Over the years my nephews were recipients of everything from puppies to ducks to baby chicks. He loved to see their eyes when the little boys walked in and saw the gifts under the tree. In the middle of everything was a cage with some live animal. I'm thankful he never gave them snakes.



To be his kid at Christmas was to always expect the unexpected. He loved Christmas and made it a magical time for me as a child and for his four boys in later years. This Christmas he wrote a song about all our Christmases past. He sang it to my two sisters on the phone, but I know it will make me sad so I hope he won't sing it to me, but will send it to me in the mail. Then when I began bawling, I can do it in private.



Families are not perfect. There are few if any Hallmark parents and siblings. But there are Hallmark moments and mixed in with the bickering and petty jealousies, we often forget those special times. On days like today, my mind takes me back to a simpler time, a slower time when love for each other was the most important element of being. When the love between our parents and the love between each of the seven of us, overcame any challenge we faced. We were all for one and one for all, and together we were strong enough to take on the biggest threat or problem. Distance and time has brought into focus the wonderful world we enjoyed growing up on a farm. Memories of that time grow more precious as we look back knowing we can never retrace those steps.