MAE JULIAN
THE WISH LISTS
I’m in a dither! What in the world is happening? When we were kids, Christmas meant decorating the tree the night before with popcorn our mother had popped by putting corn in a pan with oil and shaking the pan until the popping stopped. We strung it on thread that she provided for us. Having no TV my dad would sit in his chair and strum the guitar. We were happy, excited and awaited the big day.
We each would get one present. We were careful not to ask for anything too expensive, because it would be greedy.
Our dad worked, and our mother was a homemaker.
Christmas was exciting not only because we would wake up and open presents, but, we would go to the Waynedale Methodist Church and sit together in a pew singing Christmas songs. Hoping the preacher wasn’t too long-winded, we would look forward to coming home and having a terrific feast. My mother was the world’s best cook and she had prepared much of the meal the day before, or days before. Only the turkey and homemade noodles had to be prepared on Christmas day. We had a table that Dad made out of a door. It did just fine and was long enough to sit the nine of us.
Usually it was snowing outside, and after eating we all headed out for snowball fights and fort building with all the rest of the neighborhood kids.
I forgot to mention that the night before Christmas, carolers would come around the neighborhood and we would be so excited, running to the windows to see them all bundled up in coats and hats, singing from music they held in their hands. Our parents would take them out a treat and they would proceed around the neighborhood. It didn’t seem to matter how cold or snowy it was.
It was hard to go to sleep that night, because even those of us who weren’t sure of Santa knew the morning would bring surprises.
Christmas would not have been Christmas without a block’s walk down to Umber’s Hardware Store on the corner of Old Trail and Lower Huntington Road. They had the most wonderful Christmas display of a train that wound over and under tunnels and bridges.
Dad usually took us to see Santa and his reindeer on the side of the building of W&D’s and we looked forward to that each year. Expectations were few, and we were happy. Christmas was magic.
Today, whilst I was busy doing a needlepoint project, one of my grandsons came to me to show me what he wanted for Christmas. It was some electronic hand-held thing that sold for around $400.00. I almost died and fell over. I immediately launched into what Christmas was like when I was a kid, and how I had wished so bad for a Tycora sweater I could have died wanting it. But I knew it cost $8.00 and I remember my mother telling me, “If we spent that much on you, we would have to spend that much on every one of you, and we can’t afford it.” Although I understood, I grieved for that red Tycora sweater.
On Christmas morning, we all tore down the stairs and opened our packages under the Christmas tree. And there…was the red Tycora sweater!
I told the whole story to my grandson, standing there with that electronic gadget picture in his hand, and after waiting patiently for my story to end, said, “What’s a Tycora Sweater?” I could see I had made no headway at all. So I took the advertisement for whatever gadget he was wishing for, looked it over, and told him to send it to Santa Claus.
And I continued my needlepoint!
Mae Julian
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