My Christmas Story

I have had a Christmas Day for 82 years. 83 if I add the one that Mama had me squirming around inside. Some better than others, but each unlike every other day. Some are better remembered than others and some are romanticized, as memories fade and are brought to mind again by the season. I dwell on the 1947 to 1955 version of Christmas remembered.

Well, on June 25th 1941 out into the world came a little Patrick Rhodes Shields, named Patrick 'cause Mama liked the name, middle name Rhodes for Daddy's Grandfather Rio Rhodes. Sarah Virginia Shields was born in 1944 and Robert Wayne Shields in 1945. Future wild Indians of Oconee Heights.

The end of WW2 set off a great change in the lives of the American public. New job opportunities, for one. My Daddy, Wayne Rhodes Shields took a job in Athens, GA. as Recreation Director. 

Thank you Jesus, I could have been raised in Meadville, Pa., Grafton Il., Mill Village, Pa., or McClean, Va. Daddy chose Athens, Ga., great place to grow up and a good wonderful small town to grow and sprout wings. Dreaded and despised college (mandatory) behind me, adventures awaited. As my Uncle Red said to me once,"you never let your schooling interfere with your education". 

Athens was a small Piedmont town in 1946. It was the County Seat of Clarke County, the smallest of 159 counties in Ga. It was home to the University of Ga. Athens population was around 19,000, and maybe 1300  students. That changed dramatically when the free Government GI Bill for Veterans began to expand college enrollment at colleges around the country. Athens became a intellectual and cultural center.

We found an apartment in a huge Georgian style house that had been broken up into apartments for the first year in Athens. Mama wanted a "farm". Daddy really wasn't convinced, but the price was right; it was 4 acres, with a run down old house with good bones built in the early 1900's. It had been a English White Leghorn chicken farm in the 30's. The chicken house was repurposed and there were about 5 smaller buildings and a garage. This was in 1947.

There was plenty of elbow room back then for we three to roam. We had  a cow, a bunch of chickens, usually a hog to butcher every year. There weren't many kids around. Mama grew up on a farm. Daddy grew up in a small Pa. town with farming relatives. It was a big step for them both, bless 'em. Guess they thought it was a good place to raise young'uns.

So,  the farm was cleared of Kudzu, Wisteria and a bunch of Privet, and the house stabilized, sorta. We didn't care... we three were happy there. Heat was provided by fireplaces and a coal stove, with the help of a small laundry heater style wood stove in the kitchen. Cats, dogs and blankets furnished the heat in our freezing bedrooms.

Now, that out of the way, let me tell you what Christmas was like for us 3 little country kids.

First things first. SCHOOL'S OUT!!!  Christmas vacation! Of course, our parents were not really with the program. They were working. We were pretty much in our own custody to roam the hills, creeks, and fields for miles around. I can't remember any parental instructions except feed the animals and be home by dark or when you hear the car horn. 

A day came to hunt up a Christmas tree! We never  heard of buying a tree. We cut one down and brought it home. 

Daddy had an old A Model Ford with a Sears one wheeled trailer to pull behind. We three kids would load up in the trailer with Wan, the bird dog. Mama rode up front leaving us to bounce down the dirt roads. Cotton was no longer king. Fields, worn out from years of misuse, reverted to sagebrush, scraggly pine and sweet gum thickets. 

We'd go to a friend's 300 acre farm on the Jefferson River Road, unload and start walking. Selection of the tree was Mama's job. I don't know what kind of tree they had at her "Mama's" but that kind wasn't available in a sagebrush field of Ga. She tied white cloth to likely candidates. Daddy carried the bow saw and the old .410 shotgun in case we jumped a rabbit, or Wan pointed a covey of quail. Mama sent us three to the "swampish place" to find Smilax, and admonished us not to get our feet wet. Yeah, right.

Mama finally made up her mind. The tree finally selected. The ride back in the trailer was chilly as the sun sank lower. Daddy could never find the "tree stand" he made last year. We had long spikes and nailed the tree to it after cutting off the end to Mama's specifications. We marched the tree into the house, usually knocking something over. The tree resided in front of the fireplace at one end of the big living room, leaving the other fireplace to help heat the house.

Daddy would get out the light strings. He was a stickler for making sure all the lights were working when they were put away last year. They never worked this year. We would replace each bulb until the offender was found and replaced, a string at a time. The big argument would what color to replace the dead one with. Sometimes you could just flick the bulb with your finger and it would magically come on. Daddy always said you woke the Gremlin up that was trapped in the bulb when we took 'em down. They waited all year to get out and into the wire again! 

Daddy would get an old wooden 6 ft ladder and we would plug each string into the next as he wound them around the tree, top to bottom.  I loved the "bubbling candle bulbs". I would beg Mama to buy one or two at Kress' 5 and 10 each year. They always burned out first. I'd add them to the middle strings and love to just stand and watch them start to bubble as they warmed up! Magic!

Decorating was never finished. There was always something new to add...old bird's nest, construction paper chains glued with flour paste at school. We also had little Styrofoam balls that you could pin sequin stars on with straight pins. That exercise was left to Sally, our artist in residence. Boring to me.

An old quilt was put under the tree, and accepted the presents as they appeared.

There were phone calls from Uncle Bob and Ethel Phlegar, Uncle Red, and Uncle John. Bird hunting in the Quail Capitol State of Georgia was a treat for them. We boys weren't invited, but it fell to us to clean birds or rabbits in the cold twilight in pans of ice cold well water. The Victorious Hunters AND the dogs languished by the fire with a drink, boots off and drying for the next days hunt. Not my favorite holiday  experience, but not one forgotten.

Uncle John and Dot would usually stay through Christmas. They had no kids then. Cousin Lynne would come in due time.

Uncle John had come to UGA under the GI Bill, and lived with us for 4 years. I think he sorta' thought of Athens as home after surviving WW2 as a co pilot in a B-24.

He met Aunt Dot at a fraternity party. Dot was from South Carolina; petite,talented and very patient. She always brought thoughtful kid presents and alway made desserts to die for. She moved effortlessly through the many storms of the Shields' Christmas fracas.

I always thought the real reason she loved coming was going shopping the day after Christmas sales with Mama to stock up for next year. She was a thrifty shopper.

Grandma Rachel, Mama's mother, usually made the rounds as she got older. She would spend time round-about with mama's siblings, her ten children, for the winter months and move back into the homeplace in Floyd, Va. for the summer. She loved to spend Christmas with us and stay the month of January. When I was 12, Grandma would let me drive her in the old Model A through the woods to Arnold's store so she could buy some groceries. She never told Mama or Daddy.

There were Christmas parties that Mama and Daddy would attend. We were left at home with me in charge. We three got along pretty well, especially at Christmas. Brother Bob was a squealer and would tell tales about his siblings transgressions to Mama next day. True or not, he'd get his pounding later.

We'd turn out all the lights except for the tree lights. We would make real hot chocolate from Hershey's Cocoa mixed with sugar and real cow's milk from our cow, Bossy. We'd pop corn in an old pan shaker over the fire, gather all the Siamese cats and Wan and sing our favorite carols. We'd  play Go Fish by firelight, read stories and be asleep by 9:30. Those were good nights. Home alone! 

Mama sang in the choir at the Presbyterian Church and we would occasionally go to the Midnight Service when we got older. It was a huge church with a 40 foot pipe organ at one end. The organ could be heard all over Athens, almost drowning out the voices of the multi church choir. We kids sat in the balcony. The candles, greenery and the organ made it look as if watching a movie. An awesome reminder of what the season was about.

Could it be better? Two weeks out of school, going to Woolworth's to pick out $1.00 present for family, driving around town to look at all the Christmas lights in the neighborhoods in the warmth of the big ole 48 Packard Clipper. 

We opened presents on Xmas morning. Daddy was very formal about it. He and Mama would get a cup of coffee. He'd light the fire, we'd fidget, he'd light his pipe, we'd fidget, THEN he'd hand out the first present...to Mama. Things went pretty fast after that. Stocking with oranges, candy etc. had to wait until after breakfast. During the day, there would be visitors just dropping by with presents or treats and often an OPPS! present Mama had "forgotten" about. 

Christmas dinner was always a free for all. The table sat about 12 and the kids tables were set up in the back bedroom. Turkey, ham, quail pie, and chicken 'n dumpling if Grandma Rachel was there.The deserts were never ending. Chocolate cake, Pecan pie, Chocolate Pecan Pie, Coconut Cake, cookies and fruits, nuts and candies. Best of all, no referees. We gorged ourselves on sugar, sugar and more SUGAR!

After the mess was cleaned up and dishes put right. Nap time would be interrupted by Mama playing piano and singing carols. The Epting family and others dropped in to sing a few with us until dark. 

Next Day was Boxing Day. The tree had to be undecorated and ceremonious taken outside...to be burned with all the years bad luck notes attached to it. That happened New Year's Day. We never kept a tree after Christmas. Mama said it was a fire hazard and it did make a mess with falling needles.

One thing I remember during the early years of living on the "farm". During the week before Christmas Mama would load us up in the old 50 chevy station wagon and we would go visit with all the families that had been hired to help us that year. Each family got a box with fruit, cookies, candies and clothes that Mama had put together especially for them. We couldn't have managed without them! 

Ed and Louise Hitchcock, Harris and Matilda, Mattie B and Earnest Scott were always there for us. They were our babysitters, maids, gardeners, wood splitters, fence builders, shrub planters; they could do anything. They could cure a cow, butcher a hog, wring a chicken's neck, cook and clean. These people, along with my relatives, were a fount of knowledge and always willing and helpful.  I learned things from them as a kid that, at the time, I could never imagine actually doing. However, I relied on every one of these experiences in my own quest for country living many years later in West Virginia. 

Those are the Christmas memories I choose to remember. Ahhh, innocent childhood.

I leave with this sad note. Cousin Lynne emailed to say that Aunt Dot died quietly on Dec 15, 2023, the very night I began to write these memories. She was 98 and was the last of the "old ones". Uncle John died a couple years ago, also at 98. He was the youngest of the ten Lancaster children and the last to pass. 

We cousins are so proud to have had them all to help guide us on our many and varied life journeys. We rejoice in our time with them all! May we all be so loved and remembered. So long as your name is spoken you will be remembered.