BY MY FIRESIDE (PART 1)

December, 1936

The living room was Ina’s favorite room. She lived many years without a real parlor complete with fireplace, and for the rest of her life she meant to cherish the comfort of this room.

Ina understood that when temperatures dipped below freezing, the front door had to be corked up and the pocket doors between the dining and living rooms closed, thereby shutting the living room off from the rest of the house. She and Jack would then confine their activities to the dining room and kitchen, which were adequately warmed by the cook stove and the wood stove in the dining room. Such a cold spell might happen once or twice a winter and last a week or two. She knew that if Jack had his way, they would close off the living room most of the winter, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She loved to read and write beside the fireplace.

Ina pulled the rocking chair over to the fireplace and commenced to read her magazine. She was particularly interested in the feature article, “Christmas Eve by my Fireside,” written by Katharine Fisher, director of Good Housekeeping Institute.*

“To me Christmas Eve is the high point in the festivities of this loveliest of all holidays,” wrote Mrs. Fisher. “It holds more magic than even Christmas day, for it is a time when all our preparations seem to work up to a blissful climax. The fragrant spiciness of the fresh balsam and pine brings thoughts of frankincense and myrrh. There is an air of expectancy, of something about to happen, as on that first Christmas Eve so long ago.”

“Yes, all right,” thought Ina to herself. “I know what she means -- all preparations finished and the house in quiet readiness with a kind of expectation in the air.”

Reading on: “We always leave the Institute early that afternoon, gaily calling a Merry Christmas to those who are hurrying out with us. At home friends are dropping in to extend holiday greetings and to leave gay packages on the hall table. A glance at the mounting pile of unopened Christmas mail bridges the miles between old friends. The familiar handwritings on envelopes and packages seem like friendly handclasps across the years.”

Lovely, thought Ina, though she had reservations. Clearly this writer was a woman with society connections. Not only had she friends but also many business associates.  “Friends dropping in,” “gay packages on the hall table,” “the mounting pile of unopened Christmas mail” – Ina wondered if these ideas fostered the right expectation for Christmas or were meaningful to the average person. Still, she was curious and read on. (To be continued)

*The quoted article appears in Good Housekeeping, December 1936. I didn't find much about Katharine Fisher online, except that she authored a number of books during a long affiliation with the Good Housekeeping Institute. KW