A Christmas Past and a wish for all

[solo1]

it seems like I've been on this earth a long time.  While my physical ability is lessened, I feel blessed mentally to be able to remember many things going all the way back to when I was 6 or so.
Life has most certainly changed today.  No need to go into that.

This little story goes back a few when things were simpler.  Maybe not the good 'ole days but close.  I'm posting this to jog your memories of times past that were  a positive in your life..  I'm sure that everyone here has memories that are more valuable than gold.

So here it is. 



           Christmas Memories as a Kid  and much later.

It was somewhere around 1936.  We lived in Ft. Wayne on Grant Ave, mom, dad, and four sisters.  Dad was working but he hadn't caught up with the results of the Great Depression. We had just started the furnace after ( to me), a lifetime of using a wood burning stove in the kitchen.  No more blanket covering the doorway to the kitchen and freezing in the rest of the house.

 It's the day of Christmas Eve and we had just had our Christmas meal as we were seated around the big table in the dining room. Dad had a surprise for me, his son, and he couldn't wait until Christmas Eve to give it to me. As a result he gave me this big box to open. He knew that I wanted a Lionel train set and I fully expected that this would be the day that I would get it.

I opened the box with shaky hands and found, not a Lionel train set but a Marx 'Commodore Vanderbuilt train set instead. It was much cheaper than the Lionel .   I masked my disappointment as I knew, even at the tender age of 8 that dad couldn't afford a Lionel.  We set up the train set on the dining room table and I ran it until it was time to disassemble it and put it away so that we could eat supper at the table.  A wonderful Christmas.

Forward to another Christmas season. Mom and I rode streetcar number 4, Broadway, to downtown Ft. Wayne.  It was a bitterly cold evening and snowing lightly.  The wicker seats on the streetcar were wondrously heated by an electric heater under the seat and we were  reluctant to leave the streetcar and enter the cold at the corner of Main and Calhoun Street known as the transfer corner.  Nevertheless we did and walked the three blocks to Wolf and Dessauer to marvel at the animated Christmas displays starring WeeWillie WandD.   We didn't do any shopping but we did walk another block to Morris's to get a hamburger and a delicious malted milk.. It was a nice evening culminating in riding number 4 streetcar back to Walnut Street, our home at that time.

Another Christmas found me participating in reciting the Christmas Story at Emmaus Lutheran church.  If I remember, I was also in the 6th grade chorus and we sang Silent Night under the strict tutelage of Mr. Schmidt, an old time strict German who was our 6th grade teacher.  At the end of the service all of us kids walked behind the altar where we were given a small box with a string handle.  In the box was a collection of hard candy.  Just in case that we might've gotten the idea that our parochial school was going soft on us, we were also given one Faber yellow pencil to remind us, after all, we were still students and that we were here to learn and that eating candy was secondary to the Cause. Another cherished Christmas memory.

All of these memories and more came back to me when, years later, I was on guard duty in Korea. It was the winter after the Truce was signed. It was Christmas Eve and as I looked up at the night sky,  no sound of any kind, no people, no trucks, no artillery,  and the sky was pitch black unspoiled by any artificial light,   A feeling of reverence came over me as I viewed  the billions of stars in the black sky.   Silent Night, Holy Night.

 I shifted my slung M2 carbine to my other shoulder, looked around, and relaxed as a sense of Peace came over me.     

  A very blessed Christmas that December of 1953.


Merry Christmas to all this December of 2015.

Wayne, Solo1

[icandoitfaster]

Thank you for sharing some of your Christmas memories! Your post was beautifully written. I hope you have a magical Christmas filled with pleasant memories, joyful hours and peace. Merry Christmas!
paul

[Popeye]

Great read as always Wayne.  Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Popeye

[Karen]

Thanks, Wayne, going to see if my rememberer still works...

[NewValker]

Thanks for the memories Wayne.
Even being pretty new here, I look forward to your posts.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours.
Craig

[The emperor has no clothes]

I really enjoyed the story of receiving the train set. It reminded me of a Christmas when I was 14. We weren't poor but we certainly weren't well to do either. My Dad had grown up poor and had always went out of his way to do his best for us kids at Christmas. I had been working for a couple years doing different jobs and had got a pretty good job making a whopping $ 2.15 an hour. I had saved for a few months to buy a pool table for our family for Christmas. It was not a great one but it was all I could afford. I was very proud of myself for doing this and not spending the money on myself which is what I would normally do. But the thing I will remember about that Christmas was how proud my Dad was of me for thinking about the rest of the family.  Some memories are priceless. Thanks for jogging my memory to think of that Wayne. 

[Romeo]

Thank you Wayne for such a beautifully written post. You are a treasure, and one of the reasons I check this board regularly. The part about Christmas on guard duty in Korea touched me particularly. I would have been just over one month old on Christmas 1953, and there you were watching out for me.

[DDT (12)]

Thank you Wayne for such a beautifully written post. You are a treasure, and one of the reasons I check this board regularly. The part about Christmas on guard duty in Korea touched me particularly. I would have been just over one month old on Christmas 1953, and there you were watching out for me.

Me too. OK, I would have been older on that Christmas Eve in 1953, but other than that... Memories like that are part of the enjoyment of later life for me, and I thank you for reminding me of the treasure trove of experiences stored in my own 'recollection bank'... and of how those building blocks have led me to be the person I have become. You are appreciated much more than you could ever know, Wayne, and all of us are blessed by having you around... You are a treasure indeed! Thanks for all you do... and a very Merry Christmas to you and yours...

DDT

[Alpha Dog]

Sure enjoyed your post Wayne.  The world of the 30s had changed drastically to when I was a child in the later 50s and early 60s.  I think it has got way to  materialist towards Christmas now instead of the simpler times, like guard duty in Korea ( and thanks for that ).

Did you ever get yourself or a child a Lionel train later in life.  Got one for my son about 2005 that we put up each Christmas.
Chuck

[solo1]

I'm glad that my little story has jogged good memories. After all, those are some of the only things that stay with us............and we need good memories.

Alpha Dog asked whether I ever got a Lionel train set.   No but I put a HO gauge set together one year for my oldest boy for Christmas. The Gift of Giving, then and now, is wonderful.

I have forgotten that, for some, Christmas season is not celebrated.  For my friend Oss I wish you Happy Holiday Season. 

By the way, I did get my train, although not a Lionel.  It's an N gauge and it's under my Christmas tree this season. Here's a pic.  The blue cars have " Merry Christmas" on them.

[Valkorado]

Thanks for (sharing) the memories.  Merry Christmas everyone!

[Black Dog]

Thank you Wayne...  A beautiful post, and a reminder of how important memories can be 

Merry Christmas to you and the Boys.

Happy Holidays to everyone that does not celebrate Christmas.

Black Dog