Years ago, when adulthood dawned on me and I suddenly realized how important our family's stories were, I started to covet all of my Grandparents' memories. I didn't want any of our family history or their wonderful experiences to ever be lost. I filmed my Grandpa on our old digital camcorder talking about his experience in the Korean War. As we gathered around him in his living room, with Grandma by his side, we heard about his time on the frozen reservoir as part of the "Chosen Few."
During that same trip up to their house in Flambeau, I took notes as I asked both my Grandparents about their memories of Christmas as a child. I had (and still have) hopes of interviewing more of my family about this same topic. But for now, as we face our first Christmas without Grandma, I wanted to share a few of her childhood Christmas memories.
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(Grandma, third from the right)
"We always had a Christmas tree that Dad cut down himself.
It was me, Vee and my brother Duane.
Mom would paint our dolls and make new clothes for them as our Christmas presents.
We went to Grandma's house for dinner (Rose Anderson, we called her "Nan"). We always had a small turkey."
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"No decorations were bought. Mom was clever and made them all.
My BEST present was a pair of ice skates. Grandma and Grandpa
bought skates for the whole family.
We also got oranges and apples from the church."
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(more about the cleverness of Grandma's mom)
"She made my sixth birthday party invites. They said:
Come to my party
come over and play
For I'll be six times one that day
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Our family only had a radio. I didn't see a T.V. until I was 19.
Grandma, first from left.
(Elisa, thanks for the pics I borrowed from Facebook) xo
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Grandpa's memories next!
