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Christmas Mammories!


  I miss the Old Christmas ways. I got a touch of it with my Grandparents and Parents. Kid's now though it is their paretnts fault, have too much at Christmas and still arent satisfied. It started with those of us with World War ll generation Parents who were raised in the Great Depression of the 30's. Jimmy Carters book on cd talks about growing up in Georgia in the depression and he decribes Christmas just as my Parents used to tell me of growing up during that era in Alabama.

  Christmas was not so much about gifts back then as noone had anything. Kid's were Happy to find a Candy Cane or an orange and an apple in their stocking. Maybe a new born colt or calf on Christmas. My Parents generation were the first to really prosper after World war ll was over and they wanted their children to have better than them, as we Parents do still Today which causes trouble for many because most are not prospering any longer and instead are struggling to make ends meet. Yet there is the urge to have a nice Christmas for the Kid's even though there is no extra in the budget. December brings the same rent due, power bill, gas bill, groceries and such that comes due each month of the year. Our Parents wanted us to have more at Christmas than them and we want our kids to have more than we did. How much more do kids need?

 An Old timer black fella was just in here at my work place and we talked about it. He said back in the Days of My Parents and him Kids appreaciated anything Folks did for them. He agreed when I asked if Kid's weren't indeed happier then with a Homemade wagon and such rather than the kid's Today who get a new bike, computer games, ipod's and so much more. He said "Sure they were Happier". I have seen personally how coming into a little money ruins Good people. Folks who have a great personality and though struggling they handle it with dignity and find a way to enjoy life and Love their Family and take care of them. They make cozy Homes and make sure the kids are warm and feed.

  When some of these Good people get a little money it ruins them. Not all of them but many become arses, jerks and get very snobby and pretentious. Katherine my black Pal whe grew up in North Carolina in those Days of Old calls these people "Nouveau Rich (New Money)". I think of the Waitress type. I love their kind ways and making each person feel special. They work hard and Love their Family and are Happy people and make others Happy.

  I miss the Old Folks. There are hardly any left in my Family. I am especially fond of going to my Bride's Aunt's Home ("It takes a Heap of Living to make a House a Home") on Sunday for a traditional Sunday Dinner. Her Aunt is in her 80's and her Home feels like Grandma's House. Not much of that anymore. I am 100% Happier in an old Home like that than I am in something the younger richer people have that looks and feels like a beach condo. No personality but fancy. Even rich people were more interesting back in the day. Maybe it was the times they lived in.

  I remember my Grand Daddy always wanting a fresh coconut cake at Christmas. I still try to do some things my parents did at Christmas. They always had on hand during the Holidays oranges, peppermints, Hershey Kisses (Daddy called them "Silver Bells" back before they made Christmas coloured foil covered kisses), raisens still on the stem, a nut bowl with walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts (Negro Toes), hazlenuts, almonds and such and a handy nut craker. They always had Coke (not Pepsi), 7UP, ginger ale, red rind hoop cheese, a gumdrop tree, and my Aunt still makes fudge and pralines. Another older person, Missie Hilda who is from Georgia and a Country Gal in her 80's makes a fine cookie each Christmas. She still orders her pecans from Georgia or Alabama pecan companies. My Aunt orders hers from Tucker Pecan Company in Montgomery where her and my father grew up just outside of town back when everyone lived in the country and not the City.

 Missie Hilda was telling stories of the 20's and 30's on the Farm in Georgia and sadly my children are not at the age yet to appreciate such stories. Missie Hilda talked of her and her Mother and Sister riding into town on a horse and buggie to see 'Gone With The Wind' at the theatre.

 I remember as a kid in the 60's and 70's when we packed up to go spend Christmas with the Grandfolks in Alabama. I loved wheh Daddy would go by Oasis Liqours to get his Father and my Uncle Bob a bottle each of 'Royal Deluxe' Bourbon. You don't see people giving whiskey as a Christmas gift like they used to. It is amazing to think of 5 of us kids and our Parents all piled into daddies big Buick not knowing the trunk was full of Santa Claus. Plus during trips in the Fall Daddy and Ma would bring Christmas stuff up then as well to hide at the Grandfolks Home.

 I remember one Christmas Eve I slept in the bed with Grandma and Ma and I would get up every hour or so and peek in the Living room around the tree and eventually one time by the tree and the fireplace with the mantle and hand wound clock was evidence sata had came. I got a bicycle that Christmas. My First bike. My Grandfather would always rise first before daybreak to put the coffee pot on the gas stove (I still have that coffee pot) and start frying the bacon, ham and link sausage. Then My Grandmother would get up to make her Homemade biscuits.

 We would do Christmas there then go to my Aunts House and she would always have a fine baked Ham and the Worlds best tater salad and of course deviled eggs. I was always excited when I got to take a candy cane off her tree. Aunt Sister and Uncle Bob had a house built into a hill that Granddaddy, Uncle Bob, Daddy and a black man named Pee Wee built. The front door was ground level but the back door had a high set of stairs. They had a big back yard with a soft and a hard pear tree and a scupponong grape vine. Uncle Bob had a big basement and I can still smell it in my mind. He had a fridge down there for his beer and a coupla freezers. He had a train set down there for awhile and a tv and even a terlet and a shower

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12/14/2005, 2:05 pm Link to this post Send Email to Ratmannnn   Send PM to Ratmannnn
 
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Re: Christmas Mammories!


 My GrandMother Loved soft peppermint stick candy and would disolve some in bourbon as a sore throat remedy. She frowned on Grandaddy drinking so he had a coupla places he his his bottle of Bourbon. One was somewhere in the garage and the other was under the kitchen sink. My Grandmother liked 'Creme de mente' and did not realize it had more alcohol in it than Grandaddies bourbon did. She also had what she called her "Nerve Medicine" that I think was full of alcohol like alot of liquid medicine used to.

 In Montgomery at the Normandale Mall (really a shopping center before there were real malls) they had a large Santa Claus big as a two story building and he was sitting on a toy chest.. We always went to see it and somehwhere there are pictures of it. It was years later we found out that a big Pirate sitting on a treasure chest at the beach here was actually that same Santa from Montgomery that had been shipped down here and transformed into apirate. Now I do not know where it is as it is gone from the beach.

 Christmas Morning as we drove to Sister and Bob's house we went through shine town (Black part of town, which really meant all of Montgomery) and it was a tradition to watch out for the dozens of balck kids that seemed to get a pair of roller skates each Christmas. I Miss those Days greatly and my Grandparents. My Fathers parents we called "Itty and Tuck" rather than Grandma and Grandpa. My Mothers Mother we called "Bigamama". Her Father died on Mothers Day in 1938 when she was 10. He was watching a baseball game at Crampton Bowl in Montgomery and they took him Home to die as he had a stroke best they could tell back then. They drove right past the Hospital to take him Home as back then poor people did not go to the Hospital.

 When my Mother was in the University of Alabama Hospital for heart bypass Surgery at Christmas time back in the late 80's I drove her and Daddy up there. I have fond memories of that Christmas time event even though it was a traumatic time. It snowed in Birmingham while we were there and the decorations were everywhere and I just love the feel of Alabama anyway, escpecially in the cold at Christmas time. Daddy gave me a list of things to do when I got Home as they were staying for her recovery. That was a bitter sweet lonely melancholy trip Home. I was alone in Daddies car and it was cold and cloudy, my fave weather. I stopped in Montomery to Tell Uncle Bob and Sister about Ma's progress. Their Home was nicely decorated and I hated to leave them that night nearly as bad as I hated to leave my Parents in Birmingham. And I surely hated soming back to Florida.

  I had a nice visit with Sister and Bob and will treasure it always. I Love Montgomery, it is my Favorite town but I do not want to go there alone. It is too sad to go alone. No One is there any more except some distant cousins. The trip Home from Montgomery was touching too. I saw all the decorations and Babtist Hospital was decorated as well. My Grandparents had been in Babtist Hospital alot over the years and one or two of them may have took their last breatht there. I had bought the Brats (then still toddlers) Christmas gifts at the Birmingham Hospital gift shop. I got Home and the tree was on and the Bride was alseep on the couch. I put the kids Christmas goodies under the tree for them to find in the Morning and I think they enjoyed that even more than Christmas Day itself.

  My Grandmother Itty and Grandmother Bigamama both died at the Holidays. Itty died the Day before Thanksgiving one year and I remember going with Daddy and My Brother to the bank (where my Fathers Sister worked) and other errands preparing for the trip Home to Montgomery. We had Thanksgiving at my Cousin Patricias house and it was nice. The funeral Homes in Montgomery have a fine old timey Country feel and I enjoyed that even though the event was sad. Montgomery is a big town and the Capital of Alabama but even downtown it feels like Country. Anther funeral Home in Montgomery by the Cemetary where Ma and Daddy and so many others lie, has a cow pasture across the street. How many big Cities have a cow pasture in town.

 My other Grandmother (Bigamama) was in Jackson Hospital in Montgomery when she died. It was formerly known as St Mary's Hospital back when my Grandfather was taken past it to go Home to die. It was cold in Montgomery when we went to see her before she died. I remember going in the room and she was sitting so I went over and gave her a hug. She looked at me funny and I semlt grunt and did not know at the time she was sitting on a potty chair going potty. She joked after I left that she had never been hugged while sitting on the terlet before.

  The Wife and I left to go Home and I never saw Bigamama alive again. My Uncle is still angry with them. Uncle Gordon is the only Uncle I have left and I am very pssesive of him . He is mad because the doctor said he does not operater on old people who were going to die anyway. They said she was too old and her veins to frail to have bypass surgery. In reflection we wish we had taken her to Birmingham as they operated on Daddies heart when the local Doctors only said "You need to get your affairs in order. Birmingham gave Daddy 6 more months on this Earth when they said they could do bypass on him. If he had taken care of himself he would have lived longer.

 Daddy died December 19th into the 20th of 1992. He had made the rounds with Ma to all our Homes that Saturday night and the Wife still tears up when I mention the beautiful December Sunset that last Saturday night of his Life. She also tears up when she makes Daddies fave lemon cake. That December the Bride and I had just closed on our first house and were cleaning and painting. Daddy and Ma came by to help and as Daddy tried to help me fix a ceiling fan he had to stop and said "I will have to do this later". I had never seen Daddy too exhausted to do anything and it worried me. They left that night and I asked if he was old enough to be driving and he smiled at me. I stood in the road and watched them drive out of sight. Daddy was going to record the Staler Brothers Christmas special for me as I was recording the Saturday Night Live Christmas show that came on at the same time that night. So I am the last person Daddy did something for on this Earth.

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12/14/2005, 2:07 pm Link to this post Send Email to Ratmannnn   Send PM to Ratmannnn
 
Maggierama Profile
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Re: Christmas Mammories!


Thanks R for sharing that. Hope you know how much we all appreciate the gifts you share with us here...that was a precious one.
12/14/2005, 2:28 pm Link to this post Send Email to Maggierama   Send PM to Maggierama
 
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Re: Christmas Mammories!


*just bumping up to the top so no-one will miss this*
12/14/2005, 2:31 pm Link to this post Send Email to Maggierama   Send PM to Maggierama
 
Ratmannnn Profile
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Re: Christmas Mammories!


 I Got something for you to Bump Granny!

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12/14/2005, 2:38 pm Link to this post Send Email to Ratmannnn   Send PM to Ratmannnn
 
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Re: Christmas Mammories!


maggie..
12/15/2005, 12:43 am Link to this post Send Email to pearl   Send PM to pearl
 
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Re: Christmas Mammories!


pearllllllll.....
12/15/2005, 11:15 am Link to this post Send Email to Maggierama   Send PM to Maggierama
 
Ratmannnn Profile
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Re: Christmas Mammories!


 Hey, enough with the chit chat, I need Praising!!!

 :lvis:

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12/15/2005, 12:35 pm Link to this post Send Email to Ratmannnn   Send PM to Ratmannnn
 
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Re: Christmas Mammories!


That was some good reading Rat. I was going to post some of my own memories, but that just didnt seem right after I read all of your posts. Good stuff indeed! emoticon

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Winner of EIGHT Phunnies and counting!

Winner of TWO Moondog Fantasy Football titles and counting!
12/16/2005, 9:48 pm Link to this post Send Email to tkitna   Send PM to tkitna
 
Steve A Profile
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Re: Christmas Mammories!


as I have said for years, and others have too, the Ratster should be writing a book. Heck, he already has enough stuff in this forum, it just needs to be put together in book form.

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Be nice to America.

Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
12/17/2005, 1:24 am Link to this post Send Email to Steve A   Send PM to Steve A
 


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