Greetings and best wishes for a peaceful 2022 holiday season. And let’s hope for a better-than-expected 2023.
This little Christmas photo is of yours truly, about age four or five, in my family’s house on Oak Hill Ave., Salisbury, Maryland. The scooter was a dream come true. To me, playing outdoors was part of everyday life. It just made sense to me to get out in nature, race around, watch the clouds go by. The scooter was perfect for me at that age. It was luxury to coast the neighborhood sidewalks to see my friends. My friends were very important to me. Still are.
Ode to Christmases Past
Lucky me, my parents cared about my interests and were able to provide such a gift of simple fun and transportation. Looking back on that red scooter, I think it represented adventure, independence, as well as exercise. Later, I felt the same about bicycles, running track in high school, and then experimenting on the uneven parallel bars while a member of our gymnastics team.
I remember that flouncy dress; I think it was red. My mother was an excellent seamstress (she taught me that skill) who proudly custom made it, as well as the sheer white pinafore over it. That may or may not have been in style at the time, but I was fascinated by that extra layer of frill. In later years, I made clothes for my own daughter, Rachel, usually just for special occasions. One was a blue satin party dress with a lacey white collar.
I remember pulling up those knee socks, warm and fuzzy against my skin. I remember decorating that Christmas tree with puffy popcorn chains we made the night before—can you see the one in the branches at about the same level as my hand on the scooter’s steering bar? I kept that tradition alive, too, with my daughter when she was little.
I remember the framed art on the wall by the tree in the photo. I’m pretty sure the wooden frame had leaves carved along the top. The picture is of some kind of bird. My parents had several like that, and all these years later they appear on the staircase wall in one of my short-short stories you see in From the Porch to the Page, my most recent book.
I remember, too, pulling on rubber boots and heading outdoors where frosty air stung my nose and joining kids in my neighborhood for snowball fights. At times I swept paths around the yard with one kind of broom or another, maybe imitating Dad who cleared the driveway and sidewalk. Who knows?
Wait, I think I remember smelling pancakes steaming on the kitchen table, and bacon, and my parents’ coffee brewing. Mom just turned on the stereo. Suddenly, we hear Perry Como’s Christmas songs float through the house. We’re in the holiday spirit now!
Happy holidays 2022
Today, from Florida, my husband, Hoyt, and I wish you and your loved ones a happy holiday no matter where you are or what your tradition. I am honored for the chance to share some of my life and interests with you in these blog posts over the years.
Cheers to you and thanks for reading!
Your writer on the wing,
Charlene
John Arnett
On Christmas morning about 1951 I woke about 4am and went to living room where all packages were scattered under the tree and sorted them out and placed in separate stacks by people’s name. Then strapped on my new holster set with two cap pistols and waited for later in the morning. My mother soon woke and sent me back to bed and scattered all the packages I’d sorted. I didn’t try that again
Gary Curtis
Thank you for sharing
that finely described holiday memory!
Merry Christmas!
Charlene L. Edge
Thanks, Gary. Merry Christmas to you, too.
Peggy+Lantz
I remember my red scooter, too, and so was I about four years old . I had received a dollar bill for my birthday from, I think, my great grandmother. Believe it or not, if my memory serves me well, my scooter cost 99 cents! Yes, I was four years old during the Great Depression.
Charlene L. Edge
Peg, aren’t scooters just the best invention ever for kids? 99 cents, too. What a deal back then.
Nylda Dieppa
Although we got presents under the ? on Christmas, I most vividly remember our Three Kings’ Day (Epiphany) tradition of gathering grass on shoeboxes and putting them under our beds for the Kings’camels to eat when they brought our (unwrapped) presents. The next day we could follow their messy grass trail as they exited the front door!
Charlene L. Edge
Very interesting custom, I’ve never heard about that. Lucky camels!
Kathleen Brandt
Thanks for sharing your Xmas memories, Charlene.
I had a Sunday dress with a pinafore too!
Charlene L. Edge
Oh, cool! I guess it was more of a “thing” than I thought.
Happy holidays, Kathleen.