Each year we interview a few of our seasoned citizens who recall the Christmas memories of their childhood. Here are three stories to enjoy this holiday.
Marjorie was born near Eyota, Minnesota and moved to Illinois when she was four years old, where her father worked as a carpenter. They later moved back to Eyota and her dad built many pole barns in the area. She remembers school pageants as a child and was especially fond of singing in these Christmas musicals. Some of the songs she recalls singing are the Lord’s Prayer and the Indian Love Call.
They would spend Christmas at her grandmother’s farm and the years that she lived in Illinois, they would receive a package by mail with gifts from her grandma. A kewpie doll was one present that she remembered getting for Christmas.
Christmas Day was always a time for good food at her grandma’s farm. Both her grandmother and her mother were very good cooks. They raised cattle, hogs, turkeys and chickens on the farm and had a great supply of canned vegetables from the garden. Her grandma canned sausage and beef and her basement was well stocked with preserved foods. Many years later when they cleaned out the old farmhouse they found a jar of food that had been canned in 1921.
Christmas Day was a time when family gathered to be together and she would play outside with her brother and sister in the snow during the day. Marjorie was born during the depression, and even though there was always plenty of food, some years the Christmas presents were quite sparse. Her brother would often receive cowboy things while Marjorie and her sister would get dolls and homemade clothing items.
The tree would magically appear and she surmised her father cut it from the woods nearby. It would be decorated with antique ornaments and holiday adornments they made in school. One she remembers was made out of construction paper with her picture in the middle of it.
Summer and winter the kids helped out with chores on the farm. The girls helped mom in the kitchen and Marjorie could prepare a meal by herself by the age of twelve. They walked two miles each way to the country schoolhouse and she recalls one day she didn’t want to go to school. Marjorie walked into the ditch on the way and got her clothes all wet and went back home. Her grandma was not fooled by her shenanigans and dressed her in dry clothes and sent her back to school.
There was a pond near the farm and sometimes in the winter she remembers going skating there with her parents. They would bring hot chocolate with marshmallows to the skating party.
Dale grew up on a farm in the Wasioja area. His parents raised crops, cattle, sheep, hogs and chickens, His two brothers and one sister helped out with chores and he learned to milk cows by hand by the age of ten.
A week before Christmas his dad would cut a tree from the woods on the farm and they would decorate it with ornaments, tinsel and strings of popcorn. They never had lights on the tree. One of his favorite memories was Christmas shopping with his family.
The family always went to church on Christmas eve and then celebrated with a big meal on Christmas Day with lots of family and relatives for company. The meal was usually chicken, potatoes and gravy. For dessert they would hand churn homemade ice cream to enjoy with homemade candy like taffy, fudge and divinity. They would open their gifts on Christmas Day and they received practical gifts like clothes. His favorite was a Farmall toy tractor. The kids always had a small gift to give their parents.
The kids played outside all the time. They would get in snowball fights and go sledding. One year he made a couple pegs with a nail in the end and they would propel the sled along on the ice the frozen river.
They went to the country school in Wasioja with grades 1-4 on the lower level and grades 5-8 upstairs. Dale says they learned more in those eight grades then kids do now in twelve. The teachers were local farm wives. There was always a Christmas program at school and he remembers the kids playing angels and shepherds.
Carole grew up in town, but would spend Christmas at her grandparent’s farm. On Christmas eve they would open presents, usually inexpensive handmade items. The family would have lutefisk and then attend Christmas eve service at church and then have lefse afterwards. She loved being in the Christmas programs at school and at church.
Her father drove the snowplow truck and the seven kids would stay at the grandparent’s farm. Sometimes the roads were very bad in the winter. She recalled one year when the roads were so bad that they went into the ditch and they were fortunate that they didn’t end up in the river.
