It was the
winter of 1944, the war was far from home in Canada but the hardships were the
same. There was the lack of goods, food and petrol as those items were being
reserved for the troops. People were using their rationing cards to buy items
such as flour, sugar, salt, bacon and if you were in luck, nuts and sometimes
fresh fruit. So trips to Calgary were far and few between from Michichi,
Alberta.
Bill and
Alice had two children, Marilyn 5, and Dave 2. In the winter Bill was coal miner, in the
spring and summer and fall he was a farmer.
During the war Bill also helped with the war effort by helping to
maintain machinery, so he was gone sometimes during the winter. During the year
Alice would sell her eggs from her hens and give piano lessons as she was a well-respected
teacher of the instrument. She had some funds on hand for special purchases. Every Saturday nights they would travel to different
school houses in the country side and hold dances, Alice playing piano, Bill…banjo
and his fellow chums on different instruments. Bob Hoy a family friend also sat
in on the piano.
Christmas
was drawing close and Alice still had not made the long trip into Calgary to make
special purchases of warm wool socks, gloves and a hat for Bill. Other items
included a doll for Marilyn and toy truck for Dave and to shop the department
store windows dreaming of what could be once the war was over. Bundling up on Saturday
the day before Christmas Eve, she left the children with their grandmother and
made the 91 mile trip into Calgary on the bus to use her ration card.
She
purchased sugar, butter, flour, nuts, and some plums to make a plum pudding for
Christmas and tangerines for the Christmas stockings. She had a chicken at the
farm and root vegetables for a Christmas meal.
Each member of the family would bring a dish to share at the feast.
After her
purchases she stopped to gaze at the beautifully decorated Hudson’s Bay department
store windows knowing it was not reality.
Bill had cut down a small cedar tree which stood in the corner of the
living room at the farmhouse without a decoration on it. Alice spying a beautiful display of
decorations went into the department store to see how much they were. The salesman approached her and asked if he
could be of help. Alice realized he was
speaking to her and she inquired after the decorations trimming the tree on the
showroom floor. “I’m sorry Madame but those decorations are not for sale, only
for show” “What will happen to them after Christmas is over” she inquired? “They
will be thrown away as they can’t be sold” he replied. Alice was aghast, “Such a waste! She cried. “Can
I not purchase even one for my two children as they have nothing on the tree
back home”. “Please let me purchase at least one ornament” she implored. “I’m sorry but they are not for sale” and he
turned away. Alice stood there like stone gazing at the ornaments on the tree
with tears welling up in her eyes. To be
thrown away, to be discarded like trash.
But they weren’t trash to her they were beautiful. She slowly turned to
leave the store glancing back at the tree shaking her head, she walked outside
into the cold biting wind as the snow was starting to fall and swirl.
Alice had
just a few minutes before catching the bus back home when she felt a tap on her
shoulder. There stood the salesman with
a small box in his hands. He looked at
her and said “you never got this from me.
Merry Christmas”!
Alice stood
in the swirling snow dumbfounded at what just happened, with the small box in
her hands along with the other packages tied up with string she boarded the
bus.
Once seated inside
the bus for the long trip back to Michichi, with trembling hands she lifted the
lid off the box. Inside were 6
ornaments, Four were a small Santa with a wand in his hand that would fit onto
a branch of the tree his face was made of clay and painted with a felt beard. The other two were Santa’s, made of soft
plush pipe cleaner with faces made of clay that were painted, along with a felt
beard. They included bells on the ends of their feet that would jingle when
hung from the tree. To Alice they were
the most beautiful ornaments she had seen.
 |
| Christmas Ornaments from 1944 |
Today, 69
years later we still have the ornaments that Alice treasured so much that year.
Three went to Marilyn and the others to Dave. They have hung on the family
Christmas tree for many years and will continue to do so as they will be passed
onto the next generation, even if they’ve lost their luster, to this family
they are beautiful.
To the salesman
who found it in his heart to share the Joy of Christmas so many years ago, may
you find a special place in Heaven.
Merry
Christmas!
