ADVENT DAY 10: DOROTHY CONTINUES --

We moved back to Orofino when I was eight. That was during the First World War and there was a scarcity of everything. My best memory of the next few years was Christmas in the [Orofino] Mercantile. There was a long table near the center of the store filled with toys of every description. As soon as school was out we hurried down town to "play with" the toys. There weren't any decorations in town but that toy table was enough. [I remember Mother saying that one year her Christmas gift was new ribbons for her hair.]

About 1920, we moved to Brown and "C" Streets, [which continued to be the Portfors' home until 1965].

One Christmas Eve in the early '20s, we came home from church and without any explanation our mom and dad got out our gifts and gave them to us. So, we brought out our gifts to them and ever after that our gift exchange was Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning. [When I was growing up, we used to have a light supper Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner on Christmas Day. When Mother and Daddy decided to switch Christmas Dinner to Christmas Eve, Mother dreaded telling Papa (Portfors), thinking he would object. To her delight, he welcomed the idea. "That's the way we did it in the old country," he said. KW]

REAL TIME UPDATE: In considering the photo of the kids on the moon (see Day 8), Mike and I wondered if the two Willis boys might be relatives of our neighbor, Harvey Willis, who grew up in Weippe. I caught Harvey before he left for work last night and showed him the picture. "My grandfather's name was Clarence," he said. "That's crazy!" The boys in the picture were Harold and Clarence, but Harvey said he didn't know of a Harold. I'm going to take him a copy of the photo and he's going to talk to his dad about it. KW