DAY 3 – A FARMHOUSE CHRISTMAS

 

We continue our imaginary December visit at Ina’s farmhouse in 1930.

It was still cold but brighter than the previous day. Ina sat in the dining room mending by the light of the north window. Sensing her mother’s pensive mood, Shirley retrieved her Aunt Ida’s wonderful reminiscences of their first Christmas here at Gilbert, Idaho. [Ida Dickson Patchen was Ina’s sister, six years older.]

I think the best time I ever had working for that especial time was that very first Christmas at Gilbert. Those little evergreens inspired me to attempt something out of nothing. Our little sister Mabel helped me, and we put in all those long, long afternoons and evenings that otherwise would have hung heavy on our hands doing things for the little folks. Remember how it surprised you and Bertha and how after we had come and gone tramping through the snow on Christmas Eve, Jack had you light the lamp again and together you inspected our handiwork. The way you four Dobsons looked when we presented our trees was pay in plenty.

As Shirley read the letter aloud, Ina’s thoughts drifted to those first homesteading days. You see, when she and Jack came to this ridge in 1895 and ‘96, they weren’t alone. June and Bertha, her parents, her brothers Ben and Frank, and her sister Ida and her husband Ed Patchen took adjoining homesteads. After the obligatory five years, Ed, Pa, and Frank sold out and moved to Drain, Oregon. Even though Bertha and June had remained, as did Ben, the departure of Ma, Pa, and Ida constituted a blow to Ina’s support system. She had felt abandoned.

Sometimes memories of past Christmases are bittersweet, but Ina knew all of this was in the past and there was no use to think about it. So, she engaged Shirley in conversation about the Christmas Eve dinner they would provide for family and friends. We must not live in the past. The present has need of us. KW