A HOLIDAY VISIT WITH INA -- DAY 10

When June hove in sight, Shirley lit the tree, and it was so very pretty. She had the rooms decorated very nicely, too, with boughs. After the gifts were distributed by Doris and Shirley and there had been a general pow-wow such as you can well imagine, I dragged the cask from Myrtle to the center and we unloaded it. It held two packages of fancy prunes, two packages of fancy raisins in cellophane, a quantity of fine nuts, and six packages of gum. Imagine the crunching and munching and general mussing of wrappings, etc. Ina Dobson, Christmas 1932

Ina's tree, 1923

I can just see them crunching and munching. I’m reminded of another of Ina’s comments: “I got a nutcracker and picks for June & Aunt, though he has no teeth at all and she only the lowers, but they’ll eat nuts, you’ll see.” Ina, Christmas 1935

In her memories, my mother described her family’s Christmas tree, which I think was typical for Ina as well. Mother writes:

Our tree was small, on the library table, and had few decorations. Candles were placed in little holders that clamped onto the branches. There were tinsel garlands and a few small balls. The tree was put in the house on Christmas Eve and taken out on New Year’s Day.

Then Mother continues her story, showing the danger of lit candles on a real tree:

One Christmas we got up with the usual excitement but found no gifts under the tree. There was a note my dad read to us. Santa had had trouble with his reindeer and would have to deliver the gifts on foot. Sure enough! He came walking up through the orchard through the deep snow. Mama hurried and lit the candles on the tree and Papa met Santa at the door. He gave me my doll and an erector set to my brother and was distributing the gifts that came in the mail when Papa opened the door and shoved Santa headfirst out into the snow. His beard had caught on fire from the candles. Mama didn’t light candles on the tree anymore though we did put them on the branches.

 

I still have Ina’s candle clips and have toyed with the idea of putting them on the tree, but I always talk myself out of it. After all, it IS taking a chance with fire. KW

A HOLIDAY VISIT WITH INA -- DAY 9

“We promised to have a regular tree and we’ll all be children and have a lot of fun out of it.” Ina Dobson, Christmas 1932

I’m a firm believer that without toys, Christmas isn’t much fun. Certainly this is true for a child, but it may be true for adults as well. Yes, I know – it can be overdone. Still, parents have to find ways to manage the flow so that children are not deprived. Deprivation at any level isn’t fun.

The following Christmas memories were written by my mother, Dorothy Dobson:

When I was five we moved to a farm six miles from Weippe. Christmas Eve was the time my dad went out to get the tree. It was set up and decorated after we went to bed. We knew my brother would get the pop gun he wanted the Christmas we heard someone playing with it. Santa always brought the presents and they were under the tree in the morning. That same year I got the doll I wanted. I would like to have had it be a girl doll but my brother said he wouldn’t play with me if it wasn’t a boy so I named it “Albert.”

We moved back to Orofino when I was eight. That was during the First World War and there was a scarcity of everything. My best memory of the next few years was Christmas in the [Orofino] Mercantile. There was a long table near the center of the store filled with toys of every description. As soon as school was out we hurried down town to “play with” the toys. There weren’t any decorations in town but that toy table was enough.

[Here in real time, we have snow in our valley, which may well turn to slush before long. Looks like it will continue to snow in the upper country and probably accumulate. KW]

A HOLIDAY VISIT WITH INA -- DAY 8

Ina's "panorama" -- 1934

In real time, it has turned cold in this region – got down to 10 (officially 15) in the valley overnight and is approaching 30 as I post this. It’s supposed to snow this evening and then turn to rain over the weekend, but right now the sun is shining. Well, we’ll see what happens.

Managing in the cold was difficult in Ina’s day. Remember – they had no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no central heating, no insulation in the walls. Here’s what she wrote in February, 1936. (Never mind that it isn’t a December entry. They would have managed just the same no matter the date.)

Right side of panorama, 2015

Well, I wish you were here right now. The hill east [June's field] is a marvelous pink and the shadows fall blue to its top. We have about three feet of snow and it is cold. It began piling up week before last and we have had sub-zero weather off and on ever since. Week ago Friday at 9:30 p.m. it was 12 degrees below. That is the coldest we have noted. The last few days are colder – yesterday a.m. it was 8 degrees below, this a.m. 6 degrees below and the highest today we noted was 4 degrees above. Dad keeps a lantern in the cellar “of a nite” and nothing has frozen. At Musser’s it registered 19 degrees below. Reports from Saskatchewan are as low as 55 degrees below, Montana 40 degrees below. I dread to think of Pearl [her daughter, living the farm life in northern Alberta]. They were on a little trip to Stettler in January and got onto ice and nearly had an upset and then couldn’t get the car out of ditch and started, so Al had to go for help half a mile and Pearl and Fred in the car 31 degrees below. They go to get Christmas trees, etc., in such weather with a sleigh sometimes.

We are feeding the little birds on the front porch. They are so cute.  Two native pheasants come every day or so and feed in the service bushes on the buds. A band of 11 chinks are wintering here, too. It is so beautiful! A picture wherever you look!

The front door is corked up. We have been using the dining room evenings this cold weather. It is so much warmer [when we close the living room off], but I’m going back there as soon as possible. I make a little fire in the bedroom every evening now and then the bed is warm. I also hang up some things by the stove and so keep comfortable. You have it fine with the register in your room. Ina Dobson to her son Vance, February 1936

 

A HOLIDAY VISIT WITH INA -- DAY 7

This post is a tribute to my parents, Vance and Dorothy Dobson, who were married December 7, 1947. Mother and Daddy's wedding anniversary was always a part of our Christmas celebration. Below is an excerpt from Christmas memories written by my mother:

Just before Christmas in 1947, Vance and I were married and he began decorating outside. Others were decorating, too, and various organizations encouraged lighting. Vance made shapes, wreaths, and cut different pictures out of plywood. Once there was a horse and sleigh, once a Madonna and child. [Over the years] Vance designed many different star shapes, and the wreaths changed, too. The lights that he put up were never in the same pattern. I still did all inside decorating with lights in the windows and the two trees.

My parents were “on the same page” when it came to decorating for Christmas, and I miss that very much. I would say that I don’t have the talent to decorate like my dad did, but it’s more than that. You just can’t make Christmas in 2016 totally look like a mid-20th-century Christmas. Lights, ornaments, and materials have changed. Even in the ‘80s, my dad complained that boughs were becoming hard to come by. And perhaps most of all, people and circumstances change – individually and collectively.

I coped with changes in my life by adopting my Grandmother Ina’s simple Christmas – what I call the “understated celebration.” I think my dad would be pleased. He would find a pine bough and make a swag for the door. KW

[The cards on this page are some that Mother sent in the '90s.]

A HOLIDAY VISIT WITH INA -- DAY 6

Myrtle’s box, or keg, came yesterday and looks like it would hold about three gallons. Her letter says it is treats for all so that will add to it. Ethel found that $3.00 would fix up the radio so got busy and she, Earl and Myrtle sent the needful and we are very glad indeed to have it. There is a big box here from Earle and Bernice and a small one from Pearl, and Ethel got some bargain blankets so she sent two pair home and June’s get one and also they get a teapot from her. So we’ll have lots of Christmas. And Dad and June have each killed a young beef so that makes for good eats and we’ll soon have another good cow on the job. Ina Dobson, Christmas 1932

Now Ina speaks of receiving gifts, and clearly, she looked forward to it. I’ve wondered if she expected better gifts than she gave, and if she did, I forgive her. I think the old-time homesteaders expected the support of their children. But – Ina is pleased that Myrtle’s gift is “treats for all,” which will help her to make a happy Christmas for her guests. 

On one occasion Ina wrote that daughters Ethel and Pearl felt unable to send gifts. She made no comment about that, but her disappointment comes through. I suspect she felt that they were missing the point. She continually managed to give somehow out of her meager reserves, but when the daughters were short on funds, instead of being imaginative, they just gave up.

Vance, however, was poor but imaginative. “You are a good son and understand,” Ina wrote.

[In real time, we have snow this morning and it continues to snow. Mike has an appointment in Clarkston this morning, but I’m celebrating here at home.] KW