“Good Christmas Times are never ever Forgotten”

Dec 18th “Good Christmas Times are never ever Forgotten”

“Christmas Memories” from 1942!”

More people like this picture of me in 1942 – than so many others – that they send messages – just wanting more information – – in fact saying that I do not write enough???

So, I thought that I would post this picture again, and tell about some of the Christmas activities that were good and fun for us and remember that this is during the WWII years.

In the living room of this house, there was a working fireplace and in some days of the colder weather, my Father would start a fire. As a young child watching the fire was exciting just to see how the logs burning and the flickering flames and there was a cozy atmosphere in the room that our whole family would get to enjoy. Some times, just for more excitement in the fire, my Mother would sprinkle some granules from this round can and just so fast, the fire would dance with all different kinds of colors!

It was almost like watching the “fourth of July – fireworks” shooting up and into the sky but everything had a way of flying up the chimney and we would kinda fall asleep just watching the fire dance as my Mother would be reading some stories as only she could, because she could change her voice for the different types of people in the story!

One of the best things that I remember, and this is again by the fireplace, my Father had a special “pan” which had long handles seems that the top had small holes in it, and there was a hinge to open it and somehow “something” that kept it from opening when he would flip it around.

By now – you guessed what this was… a “Corn-Popper” – do not know if they are still available in the stores, today?

My Father was a “CHEF” by trade and did most of the cooking in our home. One of the amazing things we all remember is to watch him cook and he would always have a cigarette in his mouth – he never took it out and as he would be cooking – we all watch – just to see if any of it would fall into the food – as it all stayed in tack – curling over and just looking like… in any moment now, there would soon be a mess!

Getting back to the fireplace going and we would be enjoying the “POP CORN” just as fast as Daddy would make it… we were eating it! Just before Christmas my father would bring home a fresh Christmas tree that would be thick and full, because the lights that he would put on it were a much larger size lite, than those that we use for the inside tree, today… and the size would really light up the tree and the whole room, as we had a very special “CHRISTMAS” look, to enjoy!

While Daddy was doing the big and heavy type of work… My Mom was helping us kids in the making long chains of decorations … mixing all the colors of the construction papers that she had cut in just the correct size and lengths for us to glue little circles and to keep on adding to the chains as my Dad would put the long finished chains up and on the tree. We also made some other little decorations , these were small and had each of our own special designs, some of these probably no one would even know what we were thinking of, but each one was given all the highest of praises from my MOTHER as she thought we were making prize winning pieces of art!

When we were all done… our Christmas Tree was a “First Prize Winner” … that is if anyone was giving out prizes?

Sometimes for Christmas, our Grandma that lived in OHIO would come and stay with us for a week with one brother to our DAD, who ever was available to do the driving – that UNCLE and AUNT would take turns doing the driving… so that they didn’t need to stop to sleep on the way during those HOLIDAY VISITS .

We sure enjoyed having lots of fun and a whole lot of different things to do and see, back then! That’s what really makes Christmas… just having “FAMILY” … living with you for a week! D.V.