by Georgie Bright Kunkel
 
            In centuries past people worked from dusk to dawn without a break for Sunday. However, after Christians began to celebrate the Sabbath, there was at least one day of rest.  In my childhood, Sundays were spent at church and in quiet activity. My mother attended a church that was an alternate form of the Baptist. Since there was no church meetings of her particular denomination in our town, I went with my babysitter to her church.  Since my father died before I was born, my babysitter was very important in my life.

She supervised all my childhood activities until I was old enough to get myself off to school by myself. I gained my early self confidence from the attention that this early relationship provided me.

            However, sometimes we tend to paint our childhood with a brush that isn’t just the way it was. It must have been very difficult for my mother to go off to work every day and leave my early upbringing to  my babysitter. It made for a rich childhood for me, however.  I gained the intellectual background that my mother provided and the day to day love and supervision that my babysitter willingly offered. 

           During the holiday season each year our minds flutter back through the years bringing up the excitement of Christmases past.

This provides rich memories which make up who we are. When families didn’t scatter like they do in city environments, holidays were spent with many generations taking part. I was the youngest member of my family and one of three Bright family women who left the hometown after marriage.

   When I married and had children, I loved visiting the farm homes of  my two sisters where my own children could ride horses, and play in the hay mow. There were thick woods to explore and lots of room to play in the fields. Our family of four children did not have the monetary resources to take extensive vacations so we spent most holidays with our relatives on the farm. Many an evening my late husband and I played scrabble on my sister’s farm kitchen table in the evenings after the children were in bed.  LIkewise, they often sent their children to Seattle to experience the big city.

     I still have memories of Christmas spent in my hometown. We had a real live fir tree with real candles that we lit up for the Christmas Eve celebration. Since both my mother and father had been school teachers, after my father died and I was born, we continued the holiday celebration around the tree with a program in which every family member took part. I often drew the hand make programs for this celebration. I still have a few of the candle holders that were clipped onto the tree and lit every Christmas Eve.

    Yes, times change but there can be no change in the excitement of the holiday season with its lighting of candles and decorating the tree.

Our childhood memories are always with us and hopefully they provide warmth to carry us into our later years.