I can remember icy cold and snowy Christmases when I was a child. I can also remember the Christmas I was in the second grade, that would have been December 1966 I believe, when it was so balmy we played with our superballs and roller skates on the sidewalk Christmas afternoon. We got so warm we took off our jackets. At thar time my family rented a house from a Mrs. Mullins on E 1st Street in Richlands,Virginia, the 4th house on the right, beside Ewell and Goldie Baisden. That street is right beside the Clinch River, and we didn't live there long. Our house had a basement ans was heated by a coal furnace. The winter was mild all season and the river flooded that spring. Floated Momma's washing machine and put the fire out in the furnace. There were earthworms and mud puppies all over the years and street when the water went down.
Once we moved up to the house on Virginia Avenue, there were several Christmases when we had Norman Rockwell holidays. Packed snow and gravel the side streets in town. My father's brother, Norman and his wife Irene "Red" lived a block from us at the corner of E 4th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. One Christmas we walked up to their house in knee deep (if you were a child) snow and had Christmas dinner with them. I believe Frank and Terri, my cousins, were grown and living elsewhere by then.
Virginia Carol, Ed and I earned pocket money in several different endeavors as children, and the most dependable and lucrative for us was delivering the daily paper, The Bluefield Daily Telegraph, in Dalton Addition, where we lived. When it was real cold in winter, regardless of how bundled up you got, legs and cheeks would get so cold they burned and tingled. I can recall putting on long johns, jeans, then sweatpants. We would wrap scarves around our faces and my nose would run and the snot in my nostrils would freeze. We also wore bread bags over our socks in case the snow got in our boots so our feet would stay dry. Each of us had between 25 and 35 customers. On Sunday's Daddy would take the car and drop the papers at different spots so we didn't have to carry so many at once. We rolled and bagged them.
We also had a widowed aunt, Zelma Woody who lived next door to Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob Harris on Lee Street in town. It wasn't uncommon for there to be family gatherings at their homes during the holidays. One memorable time we carried home a pie pan covered with aluminum foil that had jello salad squares on it the Aunty Z sent because we begged off seconds because we were 'full as ticks'. In actuality, it was what she called perfection salad. Lime Jell-O with black walnuts, sandwich dill slices, carrots and celery served on iceberg lettuce leaves. It may have had cottage cheese in it as well. I 'accidentally ' tripped going up the walk to our house and darn if that pie plate didn't tip sideways and the salad fell into the snow. After the thaw there were dill pickles and celery in the slush. Even the stray dogs wouldn't eat it.
Well, there are other winter and holiday memories clamoring to get written down but I think that is enough for now. This is Christmas Eve 2022 and the weather in coastal NC is cold and windy but thankfully not white or icy. May you each bask in the warmth of Christmas memories and make new ones this year.
