Going
to Grandma’s for Christmas (1950’s)
It’s Christmas
Eve. It’s Christmas Eve. We’re going to Grandma’s. We’ve
had a nap although we were too excited to actually sleep. We’ve
had baths and our hair is in curlers. Oh hurry, Daddy, hurry. Do
the chores as fast as you can. Take your bath as fast as fast as can
be. It’s Christmas Eve. It’s almost dark! It’s time to go to
Grandma’s house.
When I was in
grade school, we went to my Grandparents’ house in Torrington,
Wyoming for Christmas. On the 24th Daddy would do the chores very
early but it would always be dark when we left the ranch 10 miles
south of Alliance. And, it was so
dark. There were no mercury lights that come on automatically at
dusk. Farmsteads were visible only if they happened to have a yard
light on when we drove by. Leaving Alliance, there were a few street
lights at Angora and a couple at the junction but then it would be
very dark the rest of the way to Scottsbluff. There we would see
Christmas trees in windows, street decorations and a few lighted
decorations in yards. Then it would be pitch black again with our
headlights throwing thin beams down the road ahead of us. The stars,
if it wasn’t cloudy, were low and bright. We would sing Christmas
Carols and I could gaze at the black sky and imagine how startling a
sky full of angels would be.
We knew which
small town was next and we watched eagerly for the lights of each.
In Morrill there was a lighted Santa standing beside the chimney on a
roadside roof that made us laugh and heightened our excitement
because we were almost there. Only Henry and then we’d be in
Wyoming!
We were always
the last to arrive at Grandma’s. My cousins from California, if
they came, would come a week early and the other ranch living cousins
had other family members who would do the necessary chores so they
could leave home right after lunch or even earlier.
December 24th
is my sister’s birthday so as soon as we had been greeted, we would
have her “birthday party.” After she had blown out the candles,
we’d eat supper having her cake for dessert. While the women
washed the dishes, we children put on our good clothes and the men
arranged the chairs in the family room and made sure that the fire in
the fireplace would last through the evening.
Then we opened
presents. My uncles exchanged the same gifts year after year. I
suspected that they really were the same gifts that were just put
away with the Christmas decorations. One was a coconut with a
handkerchief tied around the “face” and the other was a bag of
nuts and bolts. Grandma and Granddad’s gifts almost always
included new pajamas or slippers or a robe for each of us cousins.
After the presents we talked and played with new toys or games and
had snacks and sometimes some of the grown-ups would go to church.
One by one we kids would go change into our nightwear and then
clutching a favorite new gift we would snuggle together in the warmth
of the fireplace and the soft lights of the Christmas tree and fall
asleep on the family room floor.
After a big
dinner on Christmas Day, we would return to our house. We could
never spot the Santa on the roof in the daytime and coming from the
other direction. This was just an ordinary, long drive home. Only
the Christmas Eve drive in the dark was magical.
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