REFLECTIONS

Cherokee County’s senior citizens recall Christmases past when life was simple, but times were hard during the

Great Depression and war years.

Residents at Cherokee County nursing homes remember past Christmases.

John Smith

We never got much for Christmas when I was a child because I grew up in the Depression. When I was one-year-old, my father’s friend who was in the Navy gave me a little sailor doll dressed in a sailor uniform with brass buttons and a sailor hat. I cherished that doll, and after 79 years I still have it.

Brenda Robertson

My favorite Christmas was when I was 10 years old. I remember my dad and mom talking about how they had a hard time putting it in back of their station wagon. Come Christmas morning there was a bright maroon red bicycle with a flowered banana seat, basket on front and fender on front and back.

Maxine Huckeba

I didn’t really have any special one Christmas as they were all special. We would get a wonderful blessing because all our family would be there, enjoying food and companionship of family.

Jo Corn

My favorite Christmas was during the time of the Depression. I had been getting little stuffed dolls. The year when I was either five or six, my parents scrimped and saved and got me a doll with a porcelain face for Christmas. I loved it more than anything.

Inez Johnston

I grew up in the Depression and people didn’t have very much then. I grew up as an only child because my other brothers and sisters were older and gone from home. We hung a stocking from a nail on the fireplace. And on Christmas morning the stocking had nuts, candy with one orange and one apple. If you got an apple and an orange you really had a Christmas. I also got a doll.

Betty Burgess

My dad and mom raised our cousin, me and my sister. There was not much money in those days. My mom canned a lot of vegetables during the year. If we had a ham at that time we would have ham and two to three vegetables. We always had sweet potatoes. Mom always cooked a sweet potato pie. And we always had a jelly cake. I always got a doll.

Vesta Richards

When I was a young girl at home there were five girls and four boys. Mom and dad would always get us fruit and nuts. We would start smelling the fruit about two to three weeks before Christmas, but we could never find any. But on Christmas morning all the boys had a pretty wagon and each girl had a doll. And in our stocking there was the fruit we had smelled for so long. All of our family would get together in Jacksonville and have lunch. But the most precious memory of Christmas was when my daughter was eight years old and “Santa” was putting her bicycle, record player, records and doll under the tree and when I turned around all I could see was my daughter looking straight at me from around the corner.

Frances Aubuchon

There were too many children in our family to travel very far. We had seven girls and five boys. We were a close family and when I was about six I thought the brother just above me hung the moon. Everything he got I thought I needed. On this particular Christmas my brother asked for a pair of white lace-up boots with a knife sheath on the side with a knife in it. I asked for a pair of boots just like his. Mom told me those boots were for boys. For Christmas each year the boys got spinning tops, marbles and a new pair of shoes. The girls usually got coloring books, colors and a new pair of shoes. We always had a big lunch because mama had plenty of food canned and mama and the older girls cooked for several days before Christmas. On that Christmas morning we all got up and Santa had left tops, marbles, coloring books, colors, new shoes and then there was two pair of white lace up boots. One for my brother and one for me. We sat and whittled with our new boots.

Isabel Sanchez

We always had big meals with lots of family. My favorite toy was a doll that was very pretty. My father gave me the doll and my mother made a very pretty dress for me. It was the best Christmas I ever had.

Alva Teasdale

When I was six or seven years old I remember getting apples and oranges in my stocking and one doll that had clothes with it from Santa. I got Polio when I was six months old. So every Christmas was very special. The best present I could have ever received was walking and being able to get around.

Paul Dargle

When I was 10 or 12 years old I remember getting excited thinking about Christmas coming. I would stay up as late as I could anticipating waking up and seeing all the presents and looking for my name on one of them. Sometimes it would be clothes or a coat. The younger kids might get a tricycle and if you were older it might be a bicycle.

I enjoyed my cousins coming over for Christmas dinner. We had good food and played games until they left that evening.

Fannie Watts

I woke up early to see if I could see Santa Claus leaving my presents. Santa Claus was real good to me. He left me a lot of food, nuts and fruit in my stocking and would leave it in my bedroom.

We would always have a beautiful Christmas. I would help mama cook Christmas dinner, turkey, chicken, cakes and pies.

Leo Willis

My favorite Christmas was when I got a bicycle. My mother cooked dinner for our family and my favorite thing was her pineapple cake. She made it every Christmas.

Carl Mallard

I had three sisters who cooked Christmas dinner and they were the best cooks ever. They would make lots of cakes and pies. My favorite Christmas was when my two brothers and I got bicycles.

Eunice Simms

When I was a little girl about four or five my mother made the most beautiful doll ever and I loved it. All of my family would take turns having Christmas at their homes. All the ladies would be in the kitchen cooking when I was old enough I got to help. My mother made the best chocolate pie.

Ethel Terry

I have always shared Christmas with my large family. I have two daughters, 12 grandchildren and 23 greatgrandchildren. They come to visit me at the home and we always have a nice Christmas. We don’t celebrate Christmas the way we should. When we get a gift we think we have to give a gift back, we should be giving to those who don’t have anything.

Clista Clakley As I get older I notice less and less people remembering the true meaning of Christmas. As a child I remember sitting around a fire roasting pecans, my mother’s turkey and dressing with all the trimmings and my favorite–pumpkin pie. More importantly I remember my family all gathered together to remember the birth of Jesus Christ, the true meaning of Christmas.

Jettie Chandler

We never really made a big deal about Christmas. Growing up with five sisters and two brothers, my family never had a lot of Christmases. We never got anything while others got candy and caprice dolls. It never really bothered me because we were rich in so may other ways, such as family and love, which is what I believe Christmas is all about.

Katherine Hagen Growing up Christmas was such a great time of the year. We woke at 5 a.m. just to see what Santa had brought. We always knew we would have a wonderful dinner that included baked ham and pies of all sorts. We also read the story of the Christ child every year. Our Christmas tree was lit by candle for the lack of electricity on the farm.

Joe Rumsey

As a child I really don’t remember much about Christmas; we were really poor and we were in the middle of the war. I do remember getting a shotgun when I was nine and hunting with my father.

I remember when we did get something under the tree, my sister and I would shake the presents to see if we could guess what was in them. I also remember in my adult years putting together a tricycle for my son. We bought him a unicycle the next year.