I got my letters and cards and boxes off
in good season and had the last week mostly to make a dress for Ruth [her niece].
They told me not to try to do it before Christmas, but I wanted to. It and the
collar I made, unknown to them all, were my gifts to Ruth. She came down
different days and did my work up so that I’d have more daylight to sew in. -- Ina
I think of myself as Mrs. Claus doing
Christmas things all during the month of December – sewing and baking and
mailing and keeping the elves in line and reading lots of Christmas stories. In
reality, it just doesn’t work that way. Why not? Take yesterday, for example –
yoga class, a mid-day holiday luncheon, shopping, a funeral, errands, and
walking the dogs. No matter what the “excuse,” whatever isn’t finished before
December, likely won’t be finished in December. 
I don’t see Gramma Ina as
fantasizing or romanticizing, but there are hints that even she struggled with
all she wanted to do. “I stood all the Christmas doings just fine,” she wrote more
than once. Perhaps she’d been known to have a meltdown or two because, as it
says in the quote above, “they told me not to try to do it before Christmas, but
I wanted to.” 
In our imaginary 1934, it’s now
Saturday, ten days (or less) before Christmas. Ethel and Ernest took Sadie and went
to town. They delivered Ina’s eggs and cream to the Orofino Mercantile for
credit and enjoyed the holiday hustle and bustle as happy shoppers scurried from
store to store. The streets were decorated with evergreen garlands (weren’t
they?), and it was a lively holiday scene that some of us would like to visit
for a minute or two, if only we could.
At noon, they sat in the car and ate the
picnic lunch Ina had packed for them. Then Ethel took Sadie to the Shirley
Temple matinee at the theater while Ernest pursued his various errands. And
when the movie was over, they started for home up the steep and winding grade. It
was dusk as they pulled into the farmyard, and the kerosene lantern sitting in
the kitchen window was a welcome sight.
 |
| Vintage wrapping paper |
For her part, Ina was glad to have
them out from under foot while she wrapped and packed her boxes of Christmas
gifts.
Yes, Ernest and Ethel have a car,
but you’ve probably noticed that they still rely on Jack for local
transportation. The horse and wagon were dependable on the muddy roads and also
economical. But today, it was dry enough to get to town and back in the car. KW
3 comments:
I remember shopping at the Mercantile, and the little grocery store that we entered on the side street. Was that where Ina traded her eggs?
I agree about the month disappearing on us. They say that time seems to move faster as you get older. This year seems to have really gained momentum and is going by three times as fast as last year. How is that fair?!
The world is moving at a feverish pitch with constant change. It's my personal, unresearched opinion that society has us doing too much. And in the wealthier areas of the world, we're doing it to the children as well. But -- don't get me started.
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