That is just awesome news, @Denise Happyfeet , and it sounds like you will all be making some new found friends this Christmas season with all of the beautiful decorations that are being put up in people's windows. From what you have been sharing, it sounds like there are a lot of people there, just like you, who need some friendship and happiness . that seems to be one of the best things about Christmas is that people are always more outgoing and talk with other people just to wish each other a Merry Christmas blessing. Even shopping in Walmart, we hear people wishing perfect strangers a Merry. Christmas with each other. Although it is supposed to be a Christian day of celebration, it is actually pretty universal, and almost everyone seems friendlier at Christmas time.
The lady next door is 97 @Yvonne Smith and she told me one day she just wanted to go. I knew what she meant, and it saddened me. This woman lived her life, raised children, was a wife, all those things we are "supposed to do" and now she feels there is nothing more to look forward to. But, she decorated yesterday, I was so thrilled she did that. Each day she'd come by my window and look at all the little things, and I invited her in if there was something new, or just step out and talk to her a bit. Even if it gets someone through one more day of lonliness (and whether it's our own fault, or not I don't care) than it's been a day worth living. Looking over and seeing someone else open their blinds and put up a string of lights made my day, and my nights much less lonely. I wish we could all celebrate like this every day of the year. I'm going to keep my shades open. I never wanted to because people could see into my life. It's been a joy to talk to people every day now, because if they walk by, and I know they are not busy, and they are lonely, I talk to them. But it's really more for me or at least it's turning out that way I pray if anyone is lonely, they won't be afraid to say hello, or reach out in some way to someone and all year round
@Denise Happyfeet - I did manage to dig up a few old Christmas photos. This is me with my 10 year old Sister, the year is 1959. I am 15, and holding a "dummy", solid wood, practice M-1 rifle. I don't recall where my dad got it, or what happened to it.
We did have tinsel, and in the early years, it was real tinsel, made from tin, I guess, and it was fragile. My folks saved the tinsel, and we had to be careful putting it on the tree, and again when we took it back off of the tree. I remember trying hard to make it all lay across my hand in a fairly straight line so we could put it away until the next Christmas. Sometime in the mid-50's it seems like, we started using the nylon (?) tinsel that was strong as anything, and we didn't have to ever worry about breaking that tinsel when decorating and undecorating the Christmas tree. Plus, it came in pretty colors and not just the plain silver stuff ! I remember having pretty blue tinsel one year, but usually it was a mixture of silver and gold .
Yes, I remember the fragile tinsel I didn't think of it until you mentioned it @Yvonne Smith. Then the kind I remember as well, was the stronger, and you could stretch it a bit, we used to play with it, LOL!! Thanks for the memories denise PS I remember the silver coming off the stretchy kind onto my fingers, funny how little things like that come back to you
I think the old tinsel was made of wrinkled "lead".....we used to lay it on the tracks and make it spark, when the train ran over it.
You are correct (as usual), @Joe Riley . I looked it up to see what the history of tinsel was. Surprisingly, back in the 1600's, it was actually made from silver that was shredded. I imagine that only rich families would have been able to have tinsel back when it was made out of real silver. The problem with using solver was that silver tarnishes easily, so that would have been a definite problem with saving and re-using the tinsel. Apparently, it was then made with aluminum until the first World War, when they stopped using metals of all kinds for anything else except what was absolutely necessary. After that, tinsel was made with lead, and that is the kind that you and I and Denise all remember. I had NO idea that it would spark on the electric train tracks ! My mother and father would have never let me try that even if I did know about doing that. We had American Flyer trains, and every winter, they were set up on the living room floor, and we carefully stepped around them as we came and went from the living room. All three of us enjoyed the model trains, and the wintertime spent "railroading" with them.
Oh boy, I scored some photos from my friend Lisha who ventured out around dusk, til dark, and snagged some pics of our, little Lighthouse!! She made the Christmas Card We do have a Christmas Card Lane here that I want to drive down and get some photos too
Well I did put up a small nod to Christmas, which is more than I did last year. Bobert told me last Sunday, when I put the tree up, that he hadn't had a tree since he was small, and still lived in Arizona. So I guess we both feel at bit weird about Christmas this year. So here is my nod to the holiday.
Well I did help my children put together the stockings. Hot glue guns revolutionized the decorations for all holidays. It's funny but even my grandchildren tell their children of the last Christmas that all our children were together for Christmas. I had to have surgery on my knees, so money was very tight. I had gone to the Goodwill store, and I found some old blankets to make caftans out of for the everyone. I couldn't walk and I had to stay in bed. but I've been hand sewing since I was about eight, so when no one was around to see, out came my needles and thread. My 29 year old grandson still has his father's, ER's, caftan, and a picture of his father in it. ER, my oldest boy, had recieved a turkey from his after school job. My stepdaughters had been babysitting for the holidays, so they bought some veggies, and my youngest son, Young Michael, cooked it all and made the cornbread dressing. He was the one that took to cooking. It was one of those times when many good memories were built. We were so young back then in 1982. It's hard to believe they're all gone but my 52 year old stepdaughter. This is what the caftans looked like, but of course I chose decorative patterns for our teenager's and their father.
I think these sort of hard-times bring families so much closer together. I think the biggest problem this world has is people who have been blessed with too much, and, they don't even know they are blessed. It's still raining a lot here, it never stopped today. I thought about calling but then one of my neighbors came by, and we yacked until I was yacked out Hugs Ina, hope to see you tomorrow, Denise