Locals share some stories of Christmas past

Danielle Switalski

Before starting the weekly pinochle game this past Saturday at the Plains Senior Center, local residents were able to share some of their stories of Christmases when they were younger.

Emma, a Plains resident and avid pinochle player grew up in North Dakota. Emma lived four miles out of town and in order to get to church on Christmas Eve, her and her family rode a bobsled into town. She said her family put straw on the bottom of the sled and laid in between feather-thick blankets for warmth. Afterwards, she went home for Christmas dinner with her family.

Leo, who is a friend of Emma’s also grew up in North Dakota, not far from Emma and her family, although they never became acquainted until they both moved to Plains. Leo told the story of one Christmas where he and some of the local kids thought the Catholic church was full of “spooks” the week leading up to Christmas service.

“I couldn’t figure it out and it took me a week to figure out that it was my dad down there and he was walking around and keeping fire in the furnace trying to get it warm before church,” said Leo laughing that he and the other kids would go by the church and saw the light on, thinking it was haunted.

It took a little coercing to get Smokey, a Plains resident, to share a Christmas story because he jokingly said many of his Christmases were “full of disasters.”

Smokey eventually opened up and told the story of one Christmas during World War II. Smokey’s father worked seven days a week on the railroad because the war was going on causing his father to work long hours.

One Christmas season in particular, back in Livingston, MT, Smokey’s mother was able to hire a photographer to come to their house and take a family photo and Smokey’s father managed to get off work and make it home for the occasion.

Smokey said back in those days, people put alcohol in their vehicles, which acted like antifreeze. The car containing the family photos was parked out front of their house.

“My mother looked out the window and the car was on fire. The alcohol boiled over and got on the hot engine and set the car on fire and there went the pictures,” said Smokey laughing. “And we were throwing snow on the car. I said they were disasters.”

Claire Butcher, who grew up in California, and now lives in Thompson Falls remembers her Christmases as a child being a much simpler time.

“I feel that we lived in the best time, nowadays it’s all too much commercial,” said Claire

Claire’s fond memory of her family’s Christmas tradition was that her father never put up the Christmas tree until the children went to bed on Christmas Eve. After they were asleep, her mother and father would put up the tree, decorated with candles, which they wouldn’t light until the morning.

When Claire’s parents finally let the children come out and see the tree, they would light the candles and each child would have their own stocking that was filled with an apple, an orange and assorted nuts.

“We were happy to get what we got, we had one gift and that was it and we didn’t know any better, we were just happy,” said Claire.