DeBorgia gets festive for holidays
Roasting marshmallows was organized for the kids, but as soon as they were done, adults jumped in. (Monte Turner/Mineral Independent)
After marshmallow roasting outside, inside the Old DeBorgia School, caroling, cookies, candies and camaraderie took place.
Marshmallow mustaches were common in DeBorgia Sunday evening.
Standing in front of the ‘Cooper Tree’, west end residents and family visitors roasted marshmallows to ring in the Christmas season as the bell in the school rang at 5 p.m. Sunday.
“Santa is a hugger,” the jolly old elf said as he was welcomed by the children on the steps of the Old DeBorgia School Sunday.
Santa arrived on a West End Volunteer Fire Truck with lights flashing and sires screaming.
People gathered Sunday afternoon inside the old DeBorgia School house, which is the community center from town hall meetings to funerals to weddings for the west end residents. In this case, it was their celebratory Christmas tree lighting and Santa arrival.
“A few years after our family moved to DeBorgia we decided to decorate the tree known as ‘The Cooper Tree’ in front of the DeBorgia School House,” shares Sharon Kortuem. “Its name was such because the famous west end Cooper Brothers (known for their travel writing and presentations throughout the US around 1922), supposedly jumped over this tree when they were in school at DeBorgia. At the time, our agile son of about 8, now 48, climbed the prickly spruce to throw lights up high and some straggly dead strings still hang there,” she laughs.
“One year we (husband, Bob) brought back from Alaska several Japanese floating fishing buoys and decorated them with tin foil and red ribbons for the tree. But as the years flew by, decorating the tree, even with the help of a Jenie lift, proved impossible, so now we just light the windows of our beloved schoolhouse as the school bell tolls the start of the season,” she reminisces.
Become a Subscriber!
You have read all of your free articles this month. Select a plan below to start your subscription today.
Already a subscriber? Login
