Halloween is over, and now we think of Thanksgiving. Some years back, comments on this blog encouraged me to appreciate Thanksgiving as a holiday rather than letting it be absorbed into Christmas. Thanksgiving is just three weeks away – the 23rd. I love a year that gives me a week between Thanksgiving and the first of December.
Mike and I barely kept our own Halloween traditions this year. We didn’t go out and no one came. We had leftovers instead of chili for supper, but I did make a pie with the pulp of the mini sugar pumpkins I grew. The filling was a little watery, so I added an extra egg and a tablespoon of cornstarch. I didn’t think ½ cup of sugar was quite enough, so I added ¼ cup of brown sugar. And then I baked it with a streusel topping. Mike pronounced it delicious. That’s all that matters.
We
did delight in photos of little Silas trick-or-treating for the first time with
his mother. The little ones are so cute.
I was thinking today of how I used to look forward to Rosauer’s (grocery store) annual post-Halloween 3-day holiday baking sale. The prices were good, but it was the festive atmosphere that made it fun. Then Winco opened a store here with consistently lower prices, and that was the end of Rosauer’s baking sale. Oh, they still have a baking sale, but it’s just not the same.
And I also miss the Owl Drugstore’s holiday decorations and festivities. They closed out their gift department, and now they don’t so much as hang a string of lights to greet the holiday season. It seems doubly dark during the holidays since it used to be beautifully decorated. Now they only serve pharmacy customers, and if you have to wait for your prescription, it’s a boring place to wait.
And
there’s no holiday spirit at the old shopping center either. Penney’s and Macy’s
both closed, and that’s that.
But then, isn’t that the way? We can’t go back. We have to go forward and start new traditions. KW
4 comments:
Sometimes I really miss Orofino's Christmas. Not so many stores, but they always seemed to supply the gifts we needed to buy and somehow also seemed festive. Probably only in my memories, but they're happy memories. I never shopped Rosauer's holiday sales, but I admit to loving my first glimpse of holiday foods in the first aisle of Winco when they appear about now. I always tell Dan (my resident box boy who always accompanies me) that I can't stop smiling when I see all the goodies, stacked just to tempt me.
And I love Silas' costume! So cute!
Hi Chris! I've been thinking about Christmas in Orofino, too. Remember the Saturday drawings during the month of December? Everyone went. And I also remember that we could find what we needed in the shops. (Don't count on that today.) And sometimes Mother would say, "Kathy, let's go down town," just to get out of the house for the festive atmosphere.
And I agree that it's fun to see the stores stocked with holiday goods. Mike and I went to Rosauer's yesterday for their holiday bake sale specials AND pie crust mixes. They are apparently the only store in town that carries these now.
I do remember the Saturday drawings. Everyone crowded around on the empty corner lot that became Rod's Drug building later on. Always seemed so exciting and just added to the holiday feeling. Seems like somewhere along the way we got paper bags of hard candy, but whether it was at the drawings or elsewhere I can't remember. My mom, too, would suggest a walk downtown to peruse the store windows. And I remember that McArthur's Electric used to pipe Christmas music outside on a speaker over their front door. We heard The Little Drummer Boy one Saturday and went right in to buy the LP.
Glad you got your Rosauer's "fix!"
I think Santa came and handed out the brown paper bags of candy, peanuts, and a few of those chocolate-covered mounds (not to be confused with "Mounds" the candy bar) on the last Saturday before Christmas. Wasn't there an orange? That was the final drawing, too. It was a lot of fun.
I don't remember how one entered the drawing, but it was probably based on patronage of the stores. My dad had pretty good luck. He won several times. Anyone whose name was in the pot had a chance to win, but when someone in need won, the bystanders could be heard to say, "Oh, isn't that nice; and they can use it, too."
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