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Subject: CHRISTMAS MEMORIES 1958 (part 2 continued)
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 04:34:35 -0500


In the dim light of that early December morning, while I sat rubbing my
eyes, I saw other absolutely incredible things that I had put on my Santa
list and I was amazed that they were sitting right before me. There was
the pink round "Ginny" table and 2
pink matching chairs and the table had the word "Ginny" written in pink
on it's top. The
pink vanity and small square matching stool stood with it's center
section open to reveal the mirror in it's upright position. Sitting at
the table were 2 Ginger dolls, one dressed in a striped dress of blue
with a white organdy shawl collar and blue suede ankle strap shoes, the
other dressed in a white sun dress with red and green tiny flowers piped
in yellow and she wore red suede shoes. The Strombecker bunk beds,
complete with ladder were set up ready for playtime, and the matching
wood stained, small rocking chair held Lissy in her pink party outfit.
Oh boy, all my Christmas
dreams had come true!! I went immediately to the toys I had received
the previous night at the Christmas party held at my granny and grand
daddy Currin's house, and
opened the blue Madame Alexander boxes that held the 8" Alexander-kins
that my
aunt Mary Grace and aunt Jane had given me as gifts. One was a red head
and wore
an almost pinkish white organdy short tucked dress and straw hat with
pale pink suede side snap shoes, the other was a dish-water blonde that
wore a lime green
checked taffeta short dress with red suede side snap shoes and had a red
bow in her
hair. I grabbed them out of their pink paper and scooted back to the play
scene that lay
before me on our wine and royal blue imitation oriental rug. Look at all
the dolls, I
squealed inside my brain as I rocked backwards and forwards on the
carpet, grinning
ear to ear, with my arms around my knees. These little dolls had pink
combs and tiny
brushes and pink rubber curlers that clamped together to give the dolls a
shampoo
and fix their hair! The Ginger dolls had a red plastic headband and red
eye glasses,
and pink vinyl gloves and a pink vinyl purse! I took first one and then
the other and walked them up and down the step ladder to the top bunk,
gave them each a turn at
sitting at the pink table and chairs and let Cissette sit at the pink
stool to gaze at her
reflection in the tiny upright mirror. Oh the dolls were having the time
of their life, and
I was enchanted. Lissy became the mother to the baby Little Genius, and
Cissette
became Lissy's sister and together they managed the little ones. I spoke
all of their
conversations that they had with one another, changed the baby, fed the
baby, and swapped all their clothes from one doll to another. Somewhere
in the kitchen my
mother was cooking eggs and bacon for breakfast and she and daddy
occasionally
came into the room and talked to me, but I was in that special place in
my mind that
only I could enter...that make believe world that every child creates,
that small world
where they are in charge and fantasy becomes real...I don't know how long
I sat there,
maybe hours, I pretended Cissette had an imaginary boyfriend..... Elvis
Presley,
and Lissy had to stay home and baby sit, after all Lissy was too young to
date. Oh, it
was such fun! And then I heard my girlfriends from next door, Catherine
and Rita come
in and we all gushed with what Santa had brought us, all talking at once,
each of us
examining the dolls they brought over to show me, and each of them
picking up and
inspecting what was under my tree. We girls sat for half the day, playing
dolls. Every
now and then Elvis had to be swapped for Pat Boone as one of the doll's
boyfriends.
And then it was time for them to go home and for me and moma and daddy to
go next
door to granny's for Christmas dinner. All of moma's sisters and brothers
were there,
my grand parents and my uncle Jimmy, who at only 4 years older than me,
had gotten
an electric football game where the teeny weeny players were lined up on
their metal
playing field, the game plugged into the wall socket. I rolled on the
floor laughing when all the little magnetic players bumped into one
another and one by one they all fell into heaps on top of one another!
But, he "loved" it...boys, who could figure?
And all over his living room floor was this plywood platform where his
Lionel train was going round and round and round...it went through the
tunnel that was covered with
various shades of moss, and the blinking railroad crossing light was
flashing, and the
smoke was puffing out of the train's chimney, and he sat there with the
controls and
unloaded logs from the special car that dumped them as if my magic. The
red and blue beacon on a tower spun colored lights around the room as we
turned off the lights to watch his wonderland. And I had strict orders
that this was not for me to touch! Only big Jimmie could play with
electricity and his train set. Every year he got
a new edition to this set and this year he got the Santa Fe double engine
set....and the
two trains were running round in double circles, one going in one
direction and the other going the other way. Behind him next to the wall
was his new hunting gun and outfit to wear with his dad, and my dad when
they would go bird hunting, meanwhile
Jimmie had on his tan hunting cap playing with first his goofy football
game and then
his full speed train sets that ran circles round each other. Granny had
fixed everyone
their favorite food. She made Jimmie augroten potatoes, me mashed
potatoes, candy
yams for everyone, corn pudding sweet as dessert, Carolina string beans
cooked in
bacon grease, smoked ham, cured Virginia ham, even that salty awful
Smithfield ham,
turkey and homemade bread dressing, lima beans, baked macaroni and
cheese,
stewed tomatoes sweet as any dessert, collard greens, stewed ocra (ugh!)
that only
Jimmie could love, and for dessert there was a lemon meringue pie for
Jimmie, a chocolate pie for me, a coconut 4 layer cake, pound cake, fruit
cake, applesauce cake,
and Hershey's sweet as sugar homemade chocolate fudge...my favorite!
Jimmie and
I ate in the kitchen while the grown ups ate in the dinning room. As
usual I'd push the
food around on my plate to make it look like I had eaten more than I
actually had, this
did not fool my granny one bit...and she'd say her standard reply that
she always said to me..."If you don't eat everything on your plate,
you'll have to sit there till you are finished"....and of course after
the dishes had been washed, dried and all put away,
even after everyone had seated themselves in the living room and were
talking, I'd still
be sitting in the kitchen at the kitchen table pushing my cold food
around on my dinner
plate, beggin granny to please not make me eat that stuff....and then
she'd finally give
in with a laugh....and I'd spy that chocolate pie and she'd cut me a huge
slice....and of
course I'd nag for a piece of Jimmy's lemon pie and she'd relent and give
me a small
sliver of that one too. I'd beam with delight...my plan always worked,
hea hea...and I
was in pie heaven....every kid's dream. And then the holidays were spent
with days
and nights of being home from school and playing from house to house.
Counting the
days till school started again. But my moma and dad were getting geared
up for the
New Year's Eve Party they attended every year at the Ambassador's Club,
where daddy
was a member. My aunt Jane, moma's sister and her husband Marty always
went with
them and moma and Jane were busy deciding on the evening gowns they would
wear
when they were all there partying to ring in the brand new year of
1959.........(to be continued on the next post).
Take care and Merry Christmas everyone...lets here from everyone about
your stories
about Christmas! Susan of Tidewater VA

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