Reflections

Americans Upbeat And Stronger This Christmas

By Charles Cooper

Hello everyone, I gope you’re having a good week.  

The picture on the right is my granddaughter Shelby, who I wrote about in last week’s column.  She, myself, Lupe, Terri, Jamie, Nicole (my daughter-in-law), and Elizabeth would like to wish y’all a Merry Christmas.  

Since this is the Christmas season and I’m really into the spirit,  this week I’ll talk about some of my memories of past holidays and present.  The other day I was in WalMart with two items and I was behind an old black Lady with a full basket and she told me to go ahead as she wasn’t in a hurry. I thanked her and remarked that it is too bad that this spirit doesn’t last all year. This is at least three times that something like this has happened to me.  

In spite of all the gloom and doom that we hear constantly from the media and the politicians, people seem to be upbeat and the stores are full of shoppers. I haven’t heard one person say that it doesn’t seem like Christmas. Americans are stronger than elected officials seem to think, and if they would just leave us alone we’ll come out of this.

I’ve told this story several times over the years but I think it bears repeating. I don’t remember having a tree before my first year of school as I usually hung my stockings by the fireplace and they would have apples, oranges and nuts inside, along  with the toys in the room. The Christmas tree at school made quite an impression on me and when I got home I announced I wanted a tree.  

Since Dad was working out of town most of the time, we were living with Papa and Nannie Badley. Howard Herron, who worked on the farm and lived on the premises, went to the woods and came back with a large cedar tree. He put it in the corner of the sitting room and nailed it to two cross pieces. We didn’t know then about putting it in water to keep it fresh. Mother and Nannie took a needle and thread and strung popcorn into long strands and we wove then through the branches.

There was a large sycamore tree nearby and it had round cones which I collected and took foil and wrapped around them and hung them on the limbs. Nannie cut a star out of cardboard and wrapped it with foil and hung it on the top of the tree.

Since the rural electric lines hadn’t come out that road, we had no lights to hang on the tree.  In spite of the short comings, it still was one of my favorite Christmas trees for years. While I wouldn’t like to go back to those day, we were happy as we didn’t have anything to compare it with and we enjoyed what we had.  

As usual I have enjoyed writing the column and January will start our 10th year.  Thanks for all the input over the years and keep sharing your memories with us.  My new email address is cncooper1@hotmail.com or write me at P.O. Box 613189 Memphis, Tn 38101 and have a very Merry Christmas from our house to yours.