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Posted by copey on Tuesday, December 23, 2008 at 18:41:37 :
Every day is Christmas for me , I grew up in time and era that things we take for granted every day were just some what special many years ago .Christmas started early December grandad and dad took take 6 hogs and one steer to market ,taxes were paid and the “Do Bill” at the feed and grocery stores . Gran and mother would buy things the were not often seen in the kitchen , refined white sugar, fluffy white powered flour for shifting to bake fine pastries for the table .Mr turkey received ample helpings of bruised or “dark apples “ and a little extra ground grain . Just to add a little plumpness before be his demise .Mr Pace the fruit and vegetable man would have ventured to the big city ,his Packard came home loaded with oranges, something we would only receive on that special day . Our Christmas tree always arrived by jack frost the week before the big day .There a was a mysterious knock at the door ,we would rush to answer ,nobody there just the tree ! We would decorate with glass ornaments Gran brought from England many years ago and no candles Dad was so afraid of fire ,electricity was not come to the farm house until 1955 . On the big day the women began early peeling turnip and preparing coleslaw , counting the right number of sticks needed to heat the oven for bread and buns , cream was fresh from morning chores to be whipped to garnish the carrot pudding and pumpkin pie.Last but not least Mr turkey was brought up from the cold cellar stuffed and put in the roasting pan . When we came in from chores we could open gifts they were not often the most wanted but the most needed like a warm sweater hand knitted and new leather work boots ,which means we could throw out the patched over old ones grandad had worked over in his lasts . Stitching in old harness in to the soles of your old boots , nothing was wasted . After the gifts were exchanged we would be bathed ,in the kitchen ,in the wash tub . Oldest to the youngest ,my mothers hands were like leather and when she soaped you up it felt like you have been sanded like a old hardwood floor. By now we would head to church service clean and bundled 30 minutes by team would put you at the pulpit . Now we had a car but Dad didn’t drive and was no fan of it and of coarse the roads we not plowed like today so generally the team. But the harness was polished and the horses brushed and groomed the night before lest any neighbour say that the livestock not be fancy or fit. After the wind had run out of our minister ,bless his two hour sermons, then home to eat and eat .After evening chores Dad would but a “new “ battery in the radio ,tune it to the CBC and we would here the Christmas carols and the news and believe it or not we would here a long range weather forecast ~ Copey Merry Christams Copey and family
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