Christmas Memories Good and Bad

Yesterday may have been once of the worst Christmas memories for me.   I woke up with flu symptoms, had a terrible cough, head congestion and I stayed right in bed the whole blessed day!  I somehow dragged myself into the kitchen long enough to prepare a big pot of chicken soup which seems to have revived me.   The blessing in disguise was that I didn't get to go to a Christmas dinner with friends where I would have undoubtedly consumed thousands of calories.   So some good does come of everything--a favorite wisdom of my mother's.

This is a photo of the author's brother, Gary Wayne Clark, at the Maple Hill Community Christmas Program held at the American Legion Hall in 1949.   Santa's helper was George Wild, Sr. and the girl with the Shirley Temple curls is, I believe, Trudi Mee.
I had intended to write a little about Christmas yesterday.   I should begin by saying that during my 67 years, I have had far more good than bad Christmas memories.   I suppose my earliest memories are of having Christmas Eve with Grandmother and Grandfather Clark and Christmas Day with Grandmother and Grandfather Corbin.    My Clark grandparents lived in Maple Hill, where my grandmother Mabel was the Central Office telephone operator.   Christmas was always a busy day for her because all of the telephone calls placed or received by Maple Hill's 300 telephone owners had to go through Grandmother's switchboard.  She had more time to spend with us on Christmas Eve so we'd usually go to church and then go to Grandma and Grandpa Clark's.

There will probably be those who might dispute this (but one of the advantages of waiting until you're 67 to begin writing memories is that many of those who might disagree are dead!) but my father's favorite food was grandmother's butter beans and dumplings.  That was usually the main course when we had Christmas at the Clark's.   I also loved Grandma's butter beans, which were in early memories prepared on the coal range in her big kitchen.  She would go to the back porch and get kindling (little slivers of wood from the lumber yard) and small chunks of black coal.   She'd put them into the stove, add a little kerosene, stand back and throw a match into the stove.   Soon it would be providing ample heat for cooking and for warming the room.   In one corner of the kitchen was a pitcher pump which was connected to a large cistern outdoors.  The guttering on the house was all connected to the cistern and there were two charcoal filters the rain water had to run through before collecting in a big brick and plaster basin.    This water was used for washing clothes and for washing dishes.   For drinking, we had to take two, two-gallon enamel buckets outdoors and across Main Street to the town well.


The wedding photo of Jim and Mabel Clark, March 15, 1910

The town well had been dug in 1887 when Maple Hill was established and the physical features had taken many forms.   I don't have pictures of them all.   Originally, it was just a wooden platform with a pump and a big wooden horse watering trough.   It was used mainly by people who were riding or driving their horses into town and needed to water them before returning home.   However it was also a source of water for families who did not have dug wells on their property.   I don't know if there ever was a dug well on the Central Office property but there wasn't when I was growing up.   I do remember my uncle, Richard "Rick" Andrews and the Maple Hill Boy Scouts either repairing the stone wall around the town well or actually building the stone wall.  I don't know which it was at this point, but that work would have done in about 1957 or 1958.    I also remember there being a sort of wooden pergola over the town well on which morning glory vines grew in the summer.

The Maple Hill Town Well on Main Street looking north (circa 1950.)

But I digress---which I find myself doing more and more at this advanced age.  Grandmother Clark usually had a small, live Christmas Tree in the telephone office and a larger live Christmas tree in the living room, which was immediately behind the central office.  There was a door between the two rooms, (which had separate coal heating stoves) and that door could be closed for privacy but was more than not open.

I may as well provide one of the sad memories near the beginning of this blog.   My Grandfather, James Peter Clark, died in his sleep on Christmas Eve in 1949 until St. John Vianny Catholic Church was constructed in 2008.   Therefore, most of the children involved in the other two programs were also involved in the MHCCC Christmas Program.  Mrs (Steele) Ellen Romick was the Sunday School superintendent when I was very young, followed by Mrs. (Elmer) Charlotte Imthurn when I was in the upper grades and high school.   I became Sunday School Superintendent for two years during the late 1960s and worked with the programs.   Usually there were four or five Sunday School classes that prepared programs.   We all had verses to memorize and sometimes little plays were given.   There would also be group singing, duets and solos (both vocal and instrumental.   These were usually aided by Mrs. Romick, who was an excellent pianist, by Mrs. (Lyle) Melba Jo (Adams) Raine, Mary Sue Kitt and Mrs. (Howard) Lois Hammarlund, who was for decades the church organist and choir director.   Often times, the church choir would prepare a Christmas Contata which was performed on the Sunday before Christmas.    I say with confidence that MHCCC had excellent musical leaders and the musical programs were without equal among the small churches.

This is a photo of the first and second grade classes at the old, wood frame grade school in Maple Hill.  I am standing on the far left end, first row.   This photo was a gift from Mrs. Mae Crayton, a long-time teacher at Maple Hill Elementary.

I believe I can identify all except one.  Back Row, L-R: Pam Wisegarver, Roberta Oliver, Patty Holmes, Mary Sue Kitt, Marlene Lawson, Sharon Oliver, ----?----, Virgie Sexton, Carol Gurbb, Ann Adams.
Front Row, L-R:  Nick Clark, Rosemary Gandt, Larry Schulte, Trudi Mee, Bonnie Sloan.

Any help or corrections would be appreciated.


I think I'll quit there.    I have many other Christmas memories but they will need to wait for future years or blogs.    Happy New Year and Happy Trails!