CHRISTMAS REMINISCENCE

. . . the way you four Dobsons looked when we presented our trees was pay in plenty. Ida Jane Patchen, 1922

December 1936

Together with her daily chores, baking pork cake had been enough for one day. Ina was careful to pace herself. She could over-do and have an attack of “nerves.” She had learned to do less so that she might enjoy more.

As she rested before the fire this evening, Ina picked up the Good Housekeeping magazine once again. She liked to try new recipes, so she thought she might bake one of the cookie recipes tomorrow. However much the virtues of an electric mixer might be extolled, Ina knew she could mix any recipe with hand tools just as she always had. But a decision as to the recipe would have to wait, for she was too tired to read.

 

Instead, Ina closed her eyes and began to reminisce about the first Christmas here at Gilbert in 1896. The two Dobson families lived together in the very small original cabin in the gulch. Ina remembered it as a difficult time – living in the rough cabin with little ones. Her Earle and Bertha’s Ralph were just babies and the girls were two and four. But it was lovely to be working for themselves with the potential of owning their own farm and home. At that time, Pa and Ma and the Patchen family [her sister Ida] lived within a mile of them. They were all working hard but so happy to be together.

Anyway, Christmas was coming, and Ina just didn’t have much to do with or any reason to do it. It was winter and her living circumstances were little better than camping. She had her dreams, though, and she dreamt of a Christmas in the future when she might prepare a holiday for her family in a warm house with a floor. But sister Ida Jane, ever clever and capable, had secretly stepped up to the problem. Ina remembered what Idy had written back in ’22:

But, to come back to Christmas again – I think the best time I ever had working for that especial time was that very first Christmas “on the hill” [Gilbert / Russell Ridge] when those little evergreens inspired me to attempt another something out of nothing and I enlisted Mabel’s interests and we put in all those long, long afternoons and evenings that otherwise would have hung heavy on our hands into doing things for the little folks and you remember how it surprised you and Bee [Bertha] and how after we had come and gone tramping through the snow. Jack had you light the lamp again and together you inspected our handiwork. I think there were some funny-shaped eats in there, too, weren’t there? Well, anyway, it pleased all the biddies and the way you four Dobsons looked when we presented our trees was pay in plenty. And last but not least, you kept all those old Christmas things from the “gulch” time for some time. I want to see them.

Ina cherished this wonderful memory. Tonight she would rest. Tomorrow would be another busy day. KW 

[Doubtless one of Ina's children drew and colored the picture of the fireplace as a Christmas gift. 

The ad for a Hamilton Beach mixer is from the December 1936 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. 

The photo is of M. L. Dickson and his family at his home in Idaho. The quality is very poor, but because it's 110 years old it's precious. I can just make out the family (l to r): Bertha Dobson, Ida Patchen, Lucy and Lafe Dickson, our Ina, and the little sister, Mabel. Seated in front are Ben and Frank Dickson. 

The cabin is another old family picture, but I'm not sure it was the Dobson cabin. It might have been Ben Dickson's. But one-room rustic cabins look very similar.]