We had a lovely snowstorm this morning – quiet and such big soft flakes falling so thickly. – Shirley Dobson, 1932
It
was really a gloomy day, but something about the falling snow and fog brought
the spirit of Christmas to Ina’s heart. It felt like a good day to bake, so
Shirley mixed up gingerbread cookie dough from the old family recipe, mixing
the stiff dough with a wooden spoon. Shirley was a strong girl! She rolled the
dough and then cut them into gingerbread boys, just for the fun of it.
Jack
brought in extra wood for the cookstove, and Ina and Shirley kept the oven at
moderate temperature most of the day. I don’t know how they could tell when the
temperature was right and how they maintained it, but they did. It’s a lost art
today, an art we don’t need. When Shirley had finished the cookies, Ina baked two
loaves of bread, and then she made an apple pie. By the end of the day, they
were all three tired, so they had milk toast for supper and generous helpings
of apple pie for dessert.
Several
more Christmas cards came today, including one from eldest daughter Pearl, a
farm wife in northern Alberta. She included a newsy letter which Ina read
aloud. They all enjoyed hearing about Pearl’s holiday activities – knitting mittens,
helping to deliver food to the hungry, etc. Her son, 10-year-old Stanley, was
doing well in school. He had a good singing voice and a part in the school
play.
4 comments:
Are all the cards you picture ones your family received? Makes me think I should be saving all our cards. And following Shirley's example and getting to cookie baking!
Hi Chris!
The short answer is that some of them are mine or my dad's, but every year I buy another pack or two of vintage used cards from an Etsy seller. Then I scan them to my computer. Right now they are categorized according to the year I bought them, but that's not working so well. On the other hand, does it really matter. The difficulty is that I can't remember from one day to the next which cards I've used.
This year I plan to categorize the "hard copies" in a photo box I found at JoAnn's. It's been difficult to find a box of the right dimensions, but it finally showed up this year.
In retrospect, I'm disappointed that we threw away so many cards back in the day. Who could have foreseen how special they would be? And Mother had saved a lot of all-occasion cards with the plan to make scrapbooks, and when she moved from the house, we tossed them. I have regretted that as well.
The old cards ARE fun, but I don’t save cards, either. They are decoration for the season and then I sadly throw them out. I only get about three cards anymore and a handful of those are photo cards from friends with growing children. We used to reuse some of Grandma’s cards for gift tags if there was no writing on the half of the card with the image.
When I was a girl, it was my job to tape the cards to the door casings and then take them down. Cards that might be re-used for tags were saved in the "tag" box. All others were tossed, no matter how lovely -- and most of them were lovely. And I think that most people did toss them. Today, I have a love of vintage ephemera and cherish that sort of thing. Back in the day, we just didn't foresee how much the world would change in a relatively short time. Perhaps that's always the way.
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