“I don’t remember the presents that were under the tree. I remember the good times we had as a family”
A COLUMN By Kathryn Ross
I know we are all looking forward to a release from the troubles that have bled us dry and drained our hearts and souls over the last year, but let’s not rush into the Christmas season before giving Thanksgiving its due.
People are rushing to put up their Christmas decorations. I know many want to decorate while the weather is reasonable, without a cold wind slipping up the back of their jackets and snow pelting them in the face. That’s okay, just resist the urge to light up the red and green decorations, blow up the dirigibles or light up the displays. Save them for December.
Thanksgiving, as toxic as the holiday has come to be, deserves to be celebrated too. After all it is a time to give thanks, gather with family, eat traditional family foods whether they are turkeys or tamales and enjoy football and holiday movies.
I don’t think the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock with the intention of annihilating the indigenous people. Heck, I don’t even think they knew there were Indians around when they set foot on the rock. They were probably just thankful to get off the boat after 66 days at sea on a 90-foot ship with 102 other passengers. Gives new meaning to the term poop deck.
On that first Thanksgiving they were probably just looking forward to a good meal from the fruits of their labor.
As I sit here alone, I remember how much family plays into the Thanksgiving scenario. I think of the Norman Rockwell illustration and remember when I attended family gatherings like that, and I realized how much I miss all those people who are in those family photos with me.
Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks and make new memories. We shouldn’t forget that, in our haste to celebrate Christmas. November 28th is plenty of time to hang up those Christmas decorations.
I prefer decorating an old sled and placing it on the porch, but I’ve been known to put out a wooden Santa sleigh, decorate the door with a wreath and a couple of windows with lights.
For years, my father meticulously decorated his picture window with a decorative double cross using string lights. None of us could help, he had to do it all by himself.
Every year we would get our Christmas tree from the Boy Scouts or fireman who had set up their sales in the corner of a gas station or on a vacant lot.
While they looked great in the fading evening light, sometimes those trees left a lot to be desired after we got them home. I remember one was so sparse that when we placed it in front of the picture window, we could still see out the window. But Dad was industrious. He trimmed some pine trees in the backyard and wired the branches onto the tree. Once decorated, you could barely tell the added boughs from the real boughs.
Dad was clever in other ways too. Mom was a night owl. I often went to bed with the Christmas tree in one part of the living room to wake up in the morning and find it in another part of the living room. How Mom could move it around during the night, I never knew. She did it so often that Dad rigged up one of those creepers used for getting under car with a bucket and weights and put the Christmas tree on it. Mom could move it anywhere she wanted.
Mom also liked to decorate the front door. One year she covered a large coat-sized box with aluminum foil and a big red bow. Not long after it was attached to the door, it came up missing. She blamed my sister’s ne’er do well boyfriend for removing it. A couple of days later, a neighbor brought the box back to the house, assuming that a blustery winter wind had blown the decoration into his yard.
I don’t think Mom believed it and she never forgave Pat’s boyfriend, even after Pat married him.
It’s funny, when I think of it now, I don’t remember the presents that were under the tree. I remember the good times we had as a family and celebrating the holidays with our friends and neighbors and each other.
The holidays are too dear to be rushed.
Kathryn Ross is a life long Wellsville resident, member of the media, historian, and community activist. You can reach her anytime, kathr_2002@yahoo.com
