Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 10, Memories of a Poor Child's Christmas



I was blessed to have such wonderful memories of Christmas as a child.  Christmas was a big event in my childhood and my parents did their very best to provide us with most of the items on our "wish list".  Besides the gifts, there were big family gatherings and lots of good food.  There was laughter, love and time spent with family.  

Mom was not so blessed in her early childhood.  Because the family was struggling to survive, their gifts were meager.  I remember Mom, and Dad too, talking about those days.  They often received a few pieces of fruit for Christmas, such as apples and oranges, and sometimes a few pieces of candy which really made them happy because those were treats they rarely received.

Mom wrote some of her memories about Christmas as a child:


Christmas, no tree, no gifts    just family and all of the food that we could want.  I can remember the first Christmas tree.  A coffee can full of sand with a little pine tree in it.  We gather [sic] sweet gum balls and covered them with cotton to hang on the tree.


My grandmother put it up for us.  The lonely little pine tree sitting by a fire place with cotton cover [sic] sweet gum balls.  But we thought it was the most beauthful [sic] tree in the county.  We didn't know that there was another kind of life out there.  When we started school and I would sit in the class room after Christmas holidays and listen to all of the things the other children got, then I knew that our life was different.  After I got older I wouldn't go to school that frist [sic] day because I didn't want to stand up in that class room and tell the teacher and classmates what I got for Christmas.  So instead of lieing [sic] to them I would stay home.



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