Monday, December 24, 2018

CHRISTMAS -- HANUKKAH -- PAST -- PRESENT -- FUTURE


Wishing you the merriest of Christmases ... happiest Hanukkah !

Early twentieth century Christmases my Mother described are surely different than what I experienced mid-century.   The differences are magnified in our twenty-first century.   She grew up on a farm in northeastern Ohio, actually born in the nineteenth century.   As youngsters she and her brothers and sisters led interesting horse and buggy days lives. 

My mother described occasional dates her father believed to be to attend a church meeting, that sometimes might have ended up elsewhere as she loved to dance.  Then the ride home, whether buggy in amenable seasons or sleigh in snowy winter, would be cozy for snuggling with the horse needing no guidance -- always knowing the way home -- just like self-driving cars will be.  

Her father, my grandfather who died many years before I was born, was considered by his friends and neighbors as progressive.   He was strongly supportive of women's rights.  He also felt women and girls should not be expected to perform outdoor heavy-duty farm work with all they had to do -- keeping house, cooking, though tending the foul, gathering the eggs and engaging in any gardening with flowers, herbs and vegetables they might enjoy was agreeable.  

Farmer friends used to tease him by asking when he was going to get a car.  He sarcastically told them that he was waiting for an aero plane.  What would he think of cars today?   Little did he imagine the development of the airline industry, a trip that went to the moon, projected space travel.

He's also noted for having become frustrated waiting for one of the neighbor women on their telephone party line to finally end her call.  The telephone system then was a technology requiring the caller to crank a set number of short and long rings to reach the party they wanted.   One day there was some important matter he needed to reach a neighbor farmer about, but every time he checked the line after long waits in between the line was still busy as that neighbor kept talking, a frequent problem with her.  The last check he listened long enough to hear her say, "...and so I washed down..as far as... 'possible'..." when he interrupted by saying, "Why don't you go wash 'possible' and get off this line?"

An ancestor helping settle northeastern Ohio was a protestant minister of a major religion prevalent yet today.  Church involvement and activities were always a significant part of life, providing spiritual sustenance and a social network for the far-flung rural community residents.   Christmas was a most significant time of year with special serious meaning, but the secular Santa Claus joys were enjoyed, too, during my Mother’s youth.

Farms then and now, especially if there are animals on the land require 24/7 care.  My grandfather had several cows to provide milk for butter, cheese, smearcase (cottage cheese), plow horses to work, some fast trotters for buggy pulling when the family needed to travel and smart walking horses for individual riding.  Of course, there were a few hogs, chickens, ducks.  To control any vermin in the corn storage area (beginning of silo usage), also the barn and hay mow, domestic cats prowled and resided there, also often becoming pets along with the family dog(s) to ward off strangers and predatory creatures. 

Animals showcased creature and human life, procreation activities, birth, the unique attraction of helpless newborn piglets, foals, calves, kittens, puppies, chicks.   Love and loss,  sometimes injury and illness, also death was a natural stage of life.  Responsibility for others was vital.  Care for the earth's vegetation, insects such as bees needed for pollination of plants and so much more pertinent to human survival and environmental preservation was learned.  Despite all,  prayers were not always answered.  Life was not always fair. 

Indoor plumbing had not yet been adopted by many in rural areas, so unheated outhouses sat off some distance from the house – usually one-seaters, but some accommodating more users simultaneously were luxurious two and three-seaters, probably appreciated by families with many children.   A hand pump for water was centrally located at the front yard’s distant edge from the house, but also accessible to the barn since buckets of water would be needed both places. 

Fresh water was needed daily for wash basins placed on small stands (one lovely maple wood stand with a birdseye maple drawer I have) in each bedroom to provide moisture for clearing sleep from the occupants eyes each morning, or to cleanse the hands during the night if the beside covered pot had to be used.   Who would want to trudge down the stairs in the dark, to the outhouse, especially in a stormy or icy snowy cold winter?   Of course, these prone to being smelly pots had to be lugged daily to the outhouse to be relieved of their contents, freshened so they could be returned bedside for the next night, a job not readily welcomed. 

Downstairs firewood previously cut to kindling and larger split log sizes had to be carried inside, kept in supply for the wood burning kitchen stove and oven, any other heat-producing stoves or fireplaces in other rooms. 

How baking was done still marvels me -- sustaining an even consistent temperature with a wood stove -- no temperature dial there.   Meats butchered earlier in the year and relegated to the outdoor refrigerator-like storage room dug into the earth and earlier harvested fruits from the apple, peach, plum trees and vegetables in a fruit cellar were at the ready when needed, some dried, if care had been taken to prepare each year’s supply at harvest time. 

Plenty of water was needed for cooking with some heated on the stove for other usage.   Hot water was especially needed on nights a periodic tub bath was scheduled for the various individuals.   Bath tub/shower type bathing was not a daily activity for each person as we indulge ourselves today, sometimes soaking in luxury with hot water readily flowing with the turn of a knob.  

Woolen clothes to be worn during winter would have been brought out from storage earlier, aired of moth ball aromas.   There was no dry cleaner to regularly freshen them after wearing, plus people had no deodorants.  Mother said she didn't recall any B.O. (body odor), but speculated that "Maybe we all just smelled bad so nobody noticed".  
The parlor as one room in the house was known, was kept pristine for special family occasions and entertaining visitors.  (I have a rich-looking dark cherry drop leaf table from my grandmother's parlor.)  Everyday living activities took place in the rest of the house, often frugally to conserve wood,  they centered around a single heated stove in the kitchen as outdoors winter’s winds howled in blizzards, freezing temperatures.

Mother’s recollection of the Christmas holiday and preparations was intriguing to me.  She said the actual setting up their decorated Christmas tree was never done in advance.  The children went to bed Christmas Eve and when they awoke in the morning, miraculously a colorful ornamented tree appeared downstairs.  When the oohs and awes subsided Santa would make his grand entrance with his bag of presents for distribution.    

The ecstatic children were so accustomed to their father being in the barn doing his daily early morning chores they thought nothing of the fact he wasn’t in the house with them when Santa arrived.   Mother said years later she marveled that it never occurred to them that Santa was their Dad so he must have had a pretty good costume and disguise.  

I wish I had talked further with her, or maybe I’ve forgotten what she said, about Christmas tree ornaments, what sort of gifts they received.   I expect there were a lot of handmade items, especially from the girls who would be learning all sorts of sewing skills, knitting, crocheting, tatting, hooking rugs, making quilts, sewing clothes items, also for their Hope Chests. 

Likely the boys were into various crafts of woodworking, little toys maybe, or sleds.  Store-bought gifts would likely have been rare, perhaps expensive.  I know she spoke of my Grandmother’s wealthy sister and her husband, a doctor in Atlanta, Ga, sometimes sent special items -- or, remembrances from the uncle sailing around the world during his U.S. Navy career.  No doubt hand-me-down clothing had been remade as a matter of practicality and was like-new to the recipient.   I know books were treasured items, all sorts of print, pictures, and writing instruments with ink, paper to write and draw. 

Christmas preparations, singing in the choir, pageants, and celebrating with religious music, for which my Mother played the church piano as she did for weekly services was her practice when she became older.  

Some traditions from days of yore continue, others change, commercialization has increased from her generation to mine and from mine to that of my children, even more for their children. 

Will there be more Christmas changes and in what way in future decades, I wonder?  

How do those who observe Hanukkah perceive any changes through these same decades, including with their gift giving rituals?  

23 comments:

  1. Christmas has certainly changed from when I was young. In those days it was a lot simpler, nothing like the all-out Christmas splurge that goes on today, with people feeling obliged to spend far more than they can afford on decorations, presents, food, Christmas outings etc. I feel sorry for those households that can barely afford one present let alone presents for the whole family.

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    1. I was surprised to hear news give statistics that some people were still paying on their charge cards for presents they bought last Christmas.

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    2. That doesn't surprise me at all. Lots of people in Britain are permanently in debt, sometimes heavily so, and find it impossible to pay off the debts because their wages or welfare benefits are so low. Wages have barely moved in real terms since the banking crash of 2008.

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  2. Your narrative sounds identical to the one(s) told often by my own mother, who also grew up on an Ohio farm. Merry Christmas!

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    1. Farm life in Ohio for our parents growing up was fairly rugged compared to what we knew.

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  3. Your grandfather certainly was progressive. Only about 40% of men believe about women as he did. I like my creature comforts but there is a lot to be said about the old ways and I can't help but feel we were better persons then.
    Had to laugh at the two seaters. I had a friend who had such a luxury and I considered her rich.

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    1. Wish I had known my grandfather — either one, but both had died. My maternal grandfather’s first wife had died, childbirth related, I think, and had 5 children. My grandmother was young and naive, took on raising those children and more she bore, including my mother, when she married him.

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  4. Except for transportation modes, your descriptions agree with my childhood remembrances to a large extent. I don't recall anyone in my five generations of family having an indoor Christmas tree until we moved to Kansas City in 1946. The hand-me-downs that I wore were not remade, but were nonetheless welcomed. We had three water pumps: one powered by a windmill by the cow tank that drew from a well, one on the back porch that was hand cranked with a chain drive that drew from a well, and one in the kitchen that drew from the rainwater cistern. Our chamber pots were kept under the beds to prevent their being tipped over by someone walking in the dark. Dad and Mom always owned either a truck or a car for transportation. For a few years, Dad used the truck to haul for others as a means of making money. In Tulsa, during the war, Dad drove our 1936 Plymouth as a Taxi.
    You brought back memories, Joared.
    Cop Car

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    1. Thanks for sharing your memories here. Hand-me-downs were expected from the older kids. But with no sister, mine came from others, sometimes relatives, Mom’s friends — might need only adjusting to fit. I had only two pairs of shoes — new/good ones and older/play shoes. Better not get them wet.

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  5. Boy did you ever punch some buttons with this one. My grandmother raised me until I was almost 9, my mother being the rare (at the tome) single working mom. My grandmother was born in Mississippi snf spent considerable time in Louisiana near Shreveport, Her stories were mostly from there and as we visited there a few t5imes that is what I recall. I also know considerable history from that side off the family from New Mexico. Apparently a cousin has tracked family roots back to arrival on the Mayflower and even earlier. My genetic background is basically European WASP, focus on England, Ireland and Wales. There were many entrepreneurs in the family and it is interesting history.

    Merry Christmas!! Loved this read.

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    1. Your history sounds interesting. I hope you’re periodically writing down some of the stories you recall, other memories. Surprising to me what additional memories are triggered by doing so.

      My mother became single, too, for many years when I was little — also, health issues prevented her from working outside the home, so she took in laundry, specialized in ironing men’s white shirts. Wives hated to starch collars, and iron shirts most men other than laborers, etc. had to wear.

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  6. I like to keep my Holidays simple … good friends, good food and good thoughts. What more could I want?

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  7. In the future, we will be celebrating our holidays on Mars or the moon.

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  8. I've gone through many changes where it comes to Christmas. I miss what was but life goes on.

    I grew up with a party-line with 4 on the line. It was also the case when we first bought the farm. We got off it as soon as possible as party-lines lead to much friction. One elderly woman would leave hers off the hook-- whether to assure getting it when she wanted or carelessness, I have no idea. With teens, we needed a single line, which was harder to get in rural areas with limited lines.

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    1. With teens a phone line very important. However, we didn’t have a phone once we moved to the country in either of the states where we lived and I survived.

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  9. Oh what lovely interesting memories. My parents were born into poverty so very little in their - real - stockings hung on the fireplace. An orange, a handmade dolly, some sweets. I imagine them more excited than the kids today who are so blase and over stimulated.

    Speaking of: we keep it very simple. We all exchange books on Christmas Eve (used or recycled preferably) and that's it. Gifts that are so welcome and keep on giving for months afterwards.

    Happy 2019 Joared.

    Thanks for the words.

    XO
    WWW

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    1. Even when I was young, I recall fresh fruit, especially an orange, as being quite a treat. The gifts I received were few, modest, but among the most treasured would be a book. So it is that I continue to appreciate a gift book.

      We probably overdid presents with our children by comparison to what my husband and I had received when we were children. But even then the items were much less than their friends were given though our children seemed not to mind.
      I’m pleased to note my children have modulated the experience for my grandchildren.

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  10. I think not having kids sort of helped me to not carry on any Xmas traditions. One thing from childhood I enjoyed was threading popcorn and cranberries together with which to decorate the tree. We'd cut our tree down as well at a local tree farm. -haven't done that in years and years, but it sure was a fun experience. I suppose maybe more and more folk might go the artificial tree route as it's easier to maintain?

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    1. I think of Santa’s holiday as primarily being for children, perhaps the old folks, so as adults my husband and I limited our gifts to one another as we did for any other family. Yes, we always had a fresh tree we selected and cut as loved the aroma. Then as such trees became less available, or were precut long before, drying out, on lots, and became ridiculously expensive, we finally got a small artificial tree.

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  11. We had the best Christmas and Hanukkah ever this year. Small, friendly, and relaxed. Thanks for sharing that old one with us.

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