WINTER BEAUTY

 

A wintry landscape greets the eye wherever one may look, and we’ve had several cold days. Have had some two inches of snow and frost since Christmas. – Ethel Dobson Robinson, Gilbert (Idaho), January 1937

It was snowing when we arose this morning and had been for some time. It let up for a while and the sun came out, so Mike plowed our parking area with his 4-wheeler. However, it’s snowing again now. It’s cold, and the winter weather advisory continues until 4:00 a.m. tomorrow (New Year’s Eve).

We’re mostly confined to the house, though Mike assures me the Jeep would take us to town if we needed to go. It just seems to me the wisest thing to do is to stay put.

I don’t know how Grandma Ina spent the week between Christmas and New Year’s, but I rather think it was a holiday for her. All decorating, including the tree, was done on Christmas Eve, and she didn’t take it down before New Year’s Day. If family was visiting, her efforts would have gone toward cooking and visiting.

On New Year’s Day, the two Dobson families gathered to enjoy a feast prepared by Bertha, always some variation of the following:

·      Oyster soup (“Willapas,” notes Ina, and very good.)

·      Roast backbone of pork and potatoes

·      A platter of sausage

·      Lettuce salad, pickles, chow chow

·      Not more than four kinds of jelly and preserves

·      Only one kind of pie (pumpkin)

·      And only one kind of cake (fruitcake)

Of course, they had tea, coffee, milk, grape juice, bread, butter, crackers, and finished with nuts and candy. 

Unless I can get out to the store tomorrow, our New Year’s food will be much as usual. And positively no oysters for this girl! KW

'TWAS THE WEEK AFTER CHRISTMAS

I feel like I can settle down to just living again and enjoying my gifts and memories of a very happy Christmas to which you added a great deal. – Ina, January 1938

Christmas Day has come and gone, but of course, the annual cycle begins again, so we have a lot of fun in store. “Already planning for next Christmas,” says Ina.

Winter is upon us now – 20 degrees and snowing, but since I’ve no place to go and my family is safely in their rightful places, I don’t really care. We need the snowpack in the mountains.

I look forward to the week between Christmas and New Year’s as a fun time of doing all those things I didn’t get done before Christmas – baking, sewing, or nothing much at all. I’ll gradually put away Christmas decorations but leave out wintry things that brighten the dark days.

Seems like I do less holiday baking every year, and yet, without the shortbread and spritz cookies my mother made and frosted cookies (my favorite), the list of goodies just doesn’t seem right. I’m a reasonably good cook, but – well, I’d just rather not put my time into lengthy cookie decoration. It’s another way in which I identify with my Grandma Ina.

I didn’t mind the lack of holiday goodies until we decided at the last minute to host a family holiday gathering, but no one seemed to notice or care that certain holiday fare was missing from the offerings. We had lunch (notice I don’t call it a luncheon), and then quietly visited for an hour or so. “You see,” said Mike later, “you don’t need a lot of stuff to have a pleasant gathering.”

I was disappointed to miss little Silas’ first Christmas, but Hallie said, “It’s okay; so did he.” I guess he pretty much slept the day away. Perhaps we’ll have his first Christmas next year. Finishing his stocking is on my “to do” list. KW

CHRISTMAS 2021

 

INA'S CHRISTMAS MEMORIES, 1937

If Ina could have peered into the future from the vantage point of 1937 and seen me in her living room in 1952, she would have been more than surprised. 

In 1952, members of Ina’s extended family gathered at her farmhouse for a Christmas reunion. The group included Aunt Lynn; Aunt Ethel, Shirley Jean and her husband Dale, and their daughter Patty; Vance and Dorothy (my parents) and me. Besides pleasing Ina (Do you think Ina looks pleased?), I’m sure they wanted the little girls to experience an old-fashioned farmhouse “Christmas with Ina.”

 

I suppose they lit the candles on the tree, but I don’t remember. I do remember that the room was dark and shadowy, as it is when a kerosene lantern is the light source. My gift was a doll with yellow hair that I promptly named “Corny,” and a cardboard book of animal pictures with squeakers between the pages. It was supposed to teach me animal sounds, but all the animals sounded alike, and I knew that wasn’t right.

So, for just being three years old, I remember a little about the occasion, as I’m sure my parents hoped I would, and it’s a good memory. 

The photo here is a four-generation picture that my dad took at that gathering. Patty Johnson sits on the floor surrounded  by her grandmother, Ethel Dobson Robinson; her mother, Shirley Jean Robinson Johnson; and her great-grandmother, Ina Dickson Dobson. Shirley Jean and I are cousins, though she was a generation older. I submitted this photo to the Lewiston Tribune’s “Blast from the Past” and was told it would be published Christmas Day.

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a Goodnight!”   

INA'S CHRISTMAS MEMORIES, 1937

Ina continues on the Christmas of 1937:

The cones Vance included in his box are very pretty. I gave Bertha a couple and some of the silvered sprays. I have so many now, for I kept some over from last year. It seems like the paint preserves them some way.

 

Next Christmas, I’ll open Vance’s box early and decorate with holly instead of fir. It’s so much prettier on the curtains. I’m already planning for Christmas, you see.

 

Say, did you read the Christmas story, “A New England Christmas,” in the January Readers Digest? It was great. That magazine is the best ever. The “Digest” is a Christmas gift from Vance, and a grand one, too.

 

I enjoyed Christmas 1937 very much. Henry and Shirley stayed over till Monday morning, and we got up to about a foot of wet snow, so Dad hitched up the new team and hooked onto the car at the mailbox hill and took them clear to the highway. He rode on the left fender hooking his right leg over the radiator cap. There were operations to be done, but the lights were off due to the storm, so Shirley was in time after all and they removed the tonsils by flashlight.

[Mike loves peanut brittle. His mother used to send us a batch for Christmas and now Hallie makes it for him. I was interested to read that in 1937, Myrtle sent Ina two big slabs of peanut candy (her weakness), and she sent gumdrops to Jack (his weakness).]

INA'S CHRISTMAS MEMORIES, 1937

 

And now we arrive at the Christmas in question, 1937, of which Ina says: 

December 22 it began to snow and gave us about six inches, just right for Christmas. By the way, that was Henry’s 32nd birthday. [Remember – Henry and Shirley were married in June 1937.]

 

Christmas Day was bright and sparkling. Henry and Shirley didn’t come out till that morning for it had been blowing and drifting the snow badly, but they made it in all right laden with a barrel of flour, groceries, apples, candy, nuts, etc. You can imagine the hubbub. We held breakfast back for them and all enjoyed it to the full. Then a few more packages had to be wrapped, candles lit, etc., and we settled down to look at our beautiful tree, but Dad was uneasy so we couldn’t take as much time as we wanted and June and Bertha drove up before we were done opening our gifts. The room was full of pretty packages it seemed. It was our usual “skimpy Christmas!”

 

Vance’s box came through in fine style and opened up beautifully. It always has personality and adds so much to our pleasure. We used the holly and silvered sprays in the decorations. The holly makes the very prettiest, I think. We used the silvered bull [pine] sprigs of last year again as a centerpiece and the candles. They are so festive; we burned them all evening. We used up one pair of white ones and part of one short pair of red ones and greatly diminished the tall red ones. We recalled that last Christmas Vance had said to light the candles to eat by and thus he would be blessing us as we dined.

 

After dinner, Shirley reduced the table to a round, removed the decorations, added candy, nuts, and fruit and fresh candles.

 

The cones Vance sent are very pretty. I gave Bertha a couple and some of the silvered sprays. I have so many now, for I kept some over from last year. It seems like the paint preserves them some way. KW

 

INA'S CHRISTMAS MEMORIES, 1937

 

My dad, Vance, whose gifts of holiday greenery were mentioned in Ina’s letters, was a master of holiday decorating, fashioning fir boughs, holly (or Oregon grape), and lights into a display on the front of our house every Christmas. And it wasn’t just his skill. As Ina said, his imagination gave his work personality.

 

Daddy decorated our house for Christmas from the late ‘40s, when he and Mother married, until 1986 – the last Christmas he was with us. It was never the same twice. And – as it is with an artist, he worked alone. He did not teach the rest of us how to do it. He probably couldn’t have.

Often it was just boughs, wreaths, and swags, but some years the theme was more obvious. One of my favorites was the silhouette of a couple riding in a horse-drawn sleigh, scarves flying in the breeze, which he traced on plywood and then cut out. He mounted it on the front dormer windows.

 

One year, pixies cavorted on the front porch. Mother fashioned them out of wire coat hangers. Their heads were Styrofoam balls, and they were dressed in colorful cotton shirts. Another year, a large purchased Santa sat near the front door playing a harp that Daddy made of plywood. 

But mostly, it was just greenery and lights with a star on the dormer. Eventually, he had a welder make some large wreath forms for him. 

To my way of thinking, nothing is as beautiful or unique as a house decorated with greenery, and back in the day people did that, but if you see it today, let me know. Things changed. In the early ‘80s, Daddy said that the boughs weren’t to be had. I could hardly accept that, but my neighbor Sonya, who also made her own wreaths and swags, confirmed it. Suddenly, holiday decorating became more artificial. 

So, even before Daddy left us, his decorating style had changed – more lights and less greenery. He was also older and challenged, and grandson Shann became his assistant. From 1987 to 1990, our last Christmas in the house, Shann decorated for Mother.

 

I was taken aback when daughter Hallie questioned her Grandpa Vance’s holiday creations. It was such a big part of my life. “Why is she asking this?” I wondered. And then I realized that she was only four the last Christmas my dad decorated – 1986. He passed away the day after Thanksgiving, 1987.

Unfortunately, I don’t have really good photos of the house in all its splendor. We didn’t have a camera good enough to photograph it. Fortunately, brother Chuck took the photo of the house and Daddy at the piano in 1984. KW 

INA'S CHRISTMAS MEMORIES, DAY 20

And now we catch up to the year at hand – 1937. Ina is busy getting ready for Christmas, so we’ll leave her to it for a day or two.

This is the last Christmas related in this series of letters written by Ina – May 1932 to January 1938 – most of them before and after Christmas. Even though my dad (Vance) didn’t return home for Christmas in that time frame, I feel something about his mother’s celebration tugged at his heartstrings. I don’t know what motivated him to save these letters, but everyone knew that the small family farm was becoming a thing of the past, and he probably saw that this was an era of change, not just for his family but for the world.

 

Because of the photos posted here, I know that in 1937, my Aunt Lynn (Myrtle) spent Christmas with my dad in Raymond, WA, where he was a piano teacher. They were ten years apart in age. She was 43; he was 33.

 

I have no written summary of this Christmas in Raymond, but a picture is worth a thousand words, as we say. I get the feeling of a cozy Christmas celebration. 

Undoubtedly, they enjoyed several good meals, including seafood. I’m sure that Ina wished they had come home for an old-fashioned holiday reunion on the farm, but failing that, she was pleased that they would have Christmas together. I’m sure she thought of them as cheered and happy. KW

INA'S CHRISTMAS MEMORIES, DAY 19

 Just think of it! It’s 1937 already! Can you believe it? Well, here we are peering anxiously into the future, and hoping that “something will turn up, Mr. Macawber.” – Ethel Dobson Robinson

 

Now Ethel lends her voice to the description of Christmas 1936 at home on the farm:

And speaking of that day, we had another of those awful “skimpy” affairs, which leaves us all wondering where to put the new things when we barely had room enough for the old!

When we opened Vance’s beautiful box on Dec. 26^th, I almost wept at the sight of the lovely tapers, silver table ornament and luscious holly! Those were the most beautiful holly I’ve ever seen, so full of berries, and how beautiful the blue boxes looked in among the silver sprays. The package was a veritable treasure chest, including a gift for each one here.

After our tree on Christmas Day, Uncle June and Aunt Bertha came for dinner. We had a jolly time and much clacking of tongues was heard in the land. A large and varied menu was enjoyed, to which everyone did justice until the dessert was reached, then one and all “passed” until a later date. We women gathered in the kitchen after the table was cleared, opened the oven door and gathered round in various attitudes of comfort. Then we “let our hair down” and visited. Uncle June wandered off home to do chores, but Aunt Bertha and the girls stayed until later.

The holidays faded away gradually, for Henry and Shirley stayed until Sunday evening, and we enjoyed it. KW

INA'S CHRISTMAS MEMORIES, DAY 18

 

Don’t feel bad that the box of gifts you sent us didn’t arrive before Christmas. It prolonged our festivities, and we had more opportunity to enjoy it. – Ina, 1936

 

Ina continues on the excellent Christmas of 1936:

Vance called us Christmas morning, starting the day off fine. He was disappointed to hear that we had yet to receive his box of gifts, but it came the day after Christmas and so prolonged the celebration for us. I gathered everyone around to open the box, and all enjoyed the beautifully wrapped gifts and the verses on them. The holly decorations were so lovely, too.

 

Shirley and Henry immediately began to further embellish the house with them. They took down the big etching over the mantel and hung the large cluster there and used the silvered branches over the other two.

 

What a lot of time Vance must have spent on them and how beautiful they were! He has such a wonderful imagination! We reserved some and the ball sprays for our Sunday dinner decorations, making a lovely centerpiece of holly, the sprays, and candles. We dined in state with the best cloth, dishes, etc., all by candle light. How we enjoyed those decorations!

INA'S CHRISMAS MEMORIES, DAY 17

If Christmas 1935 was lackluster, the celebration of 1936 was all that Christmas should be. Ten-year-old granddaughter Shirley Jean was visiting with her parents, and a child in the house always makes Christmas more special. Shirley Jean was the apple of Ina and Jack’s eyes.

 

Now, don’t confuse Shirley Jean with Shirley. Shirley was Ina and Jack’s youngest child. Shirley Jean was daughter Ethel’s only child, named after Ethel and Ernest’s sisters. We always called her Shirley Jean, or occasionally “S.J.”

 

Ina tells us: Thursday forenoon (Christmas Eve), Shirley Jean went with Ernest to get the tree, and Dad (Jack) set it up. Shirley had come home Wednesday evening, and from then on it really seemed like Christmas to me. Shirley, Henry, and Shirley Jean decorated the tree, and then Shirley Jean was thrilled to be allowed to tie on gifts.

 

At bedtime, Shirley Jean hung up her stocking at the fireplace, and Dad (Jack) did, too, as he does when a grandchild is here. Then Christmas morning, Shirley Jean was allowed to slip down and get her sock before everyone else was up. We only stipulated that it should not be too early. I put a book in the top of it, so as to keep her quiet till we were up. After breakfast she was delighted to be allowed to take off gifts and hand them around. It was another “skimpy Christmas” with everyone well-remembered. KW

INA'S CHRISTMAS MEMORIES, DAY 16

Weather is bright and cold, the ground frozen hard. It is making water scarce and we need lots more moisture but we do enjoy the bright days, for we had so much fog and frost and gloom for a while. – Ina, 1935

“Let’s see -- the Christmas of ’35,” says Ina to herself. “Yes, Vance had sent holly and candles – such a treat and beautiful on the mantel! Such a pretty red! And I was careful not to burn them too long at one time in order to keep them as long as possible. Vance has such a wonderful imagination and does the nicest things!

 

“We were as well as usual that winter. We slept long and ate heartily.” KW

 

INA'S CHRISTMAS MEMORIES, DAY 15

 

It is so beautiful here. A picture everywhere you look. -- Ina

Ina sat in her living room before the blazing fire, trying to remember the Christmas of ’35. Ah, yes! Things had moved right along in 1935. Shirley did not find long-term work in Idaho Falls and so returned home in the spring. As luck would have it, she found a job in Orofino as a nurse for Dr. Robertson. The doctor and his previous nurse had trained her, and while the surgeries had been difficult for her at first, she had gotten used to it.

 

Though nothing had been said, Ina was quite certain that Shirley had missed Henry and had returned so that they might resume their courtship and plans for their eventual marriage.

Christmas had been much as usual except that Ina again had to prepare without Shirley’s able assistance. Ina chuckled to herself as she remembered how bedeviled and bemused she had been. One night before Christmas, when she found no matches on the mantel with which to light the Aladdin lamp on the library table, she went to the kitchen, took a match, lit it, and carried it carefully to the lamp in the living room. When she realized how foolish she had been to carry a lit match to the lamp, she started laughing, and to this day she still laughs when she thinks of it. I mean, she was stressed with all the packing, sorting, carding, lettering, mailing, etc., etc. – all in the name of Christmas preparations. So much to do!

 

As usual, Ina had treats on the tree for all, mostly sugared popcorn as they all voted it best for before dinner consumption. Of course, candy and nuts were served after dinner. 

Their neighbors, Mr. Boehm and the Cordells, were their guests for Christmas Eve, since they had no family nearby with which to share the occasion. Mrs. Boehm had died in 1933, and now Mr. Boehm was “a poor lonely soul.” KW

INA'S CHRISTMAS MEMORIES, 1937

Pearl sent a framed photo of her family group. Their losses precluded Christmas buying as she’d told me, and anyway much isn’t necessary. – Ina, 1934

[So true -- "much isn't necessary." And I think a picture, framed or not, makes a lovely gift. I have never seen the photo in question. The photo here was undoubtedly taken in the 1920s when Stanley was younger. KW]

Continuing her reminiscence, Ina says: Christmas morning found me enjoying a good nap until Dad awakened me with a “Merry Christmas,” whereat I rose tardily to begin my 1934 Christmas. Dad went to “feed the chores” and I began to fix breakfast: biscuits and sausage for him; beefsteak, cream gravy, and light bread for me – also grapefruit, cereal, cranberries, and honey oranges. I gave our dog Dick a generous breakfast of meat scraps, etc., and the cats also with liver to top it off, and I wished them all a “Merry Christmas.” I then fell to work and was all done and dressed and fixing my apples for salad when the guests came.

My nieces, Ruth and Doris, helped me light the tree and arrange seats. It looked very pretty and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. The girls set the table and made themselves generally useful. Mrs. Cordell and my sister Bertha helped in the kitchen. Bertha also helped me out by dressing a fat young rooster and bringing it ready for the roaster. She also insisted on making pies since I had my hands full. One each of mince and pumpkin would be plenty, I said, but no – here came two each and ginger cookies frosted. She’d tried a new recipe.

So, we had mince and pumpkin pie with whipped cream; ginger cookies; fruitcake and doughnuts with fruit and whipped cream for that; coffee; oranges; and nuts and candy besides the after-dinner mints. Well, we just parceled out the leftovers. Mr. Boehm got half of each kind of pie. I believe Mrs. Cordell got a whole pie, some donuts, cookies, and buns. Bertha got the remains of the roast, buns and doughnuts, and this is how we do.

It was a good day. KW