Dolly Parton has a song entitled, Hard Christmas Candy. The title refers to the simple but sparing Christmas that was all to well known in the difficult times during and after the Great Depression in the Tennessee Mountains. My mother and my uncle have taken the time to tell me about what Christmas was like for them growing up on Kinser Branch. Compared with the over abundance of gifts most families exchange today their story of growing up in the Liberality community makes me think of Dolly Parton's song. Yet what I heard from them speaks more to the simple, happy times that happy families strive for at Christmas.
Christmas meant going to the fields on the farm and finding a small cedar. The smell of cedar still brings back thoughts of Christmas according to Charles. Grandpa would nail the tree to two boards as a base and stand it up in the living room. There was no electricity so no lights on the tree. Grandma had some tinsel strands to wrap around the tree. Then they would pop some popcorn, string it and put it on the tree. There were no other ornaments to hang. Mom and Charles remember that there was always candy and fruit to enjoy. Normally they'd have coconut bonbons, orange slices, chocolate drops and a grocery store mix of candy. Another treat that they didn't get during the rest of the year was oranges, bananas. grapes and raisins. The raisins came attached to the stem in clusters, just the way they were grown. Sometimes they would have a coconut to crack open and eat. The Christmas candy and fruit were the highlight of Christmas back in the 1940's. Every year after St. Mary's Methodist Church was formed there would be a Christmas play. Each child would receive a Christmas bag with candy treats such as an orange, an apple, some nuts and some stick candy. Unlike in Dolly's song, Charles remembers that each year he and my mother would each receive a few small gifts. For mom that would mean a small doll and some clothing. Charles remembers that he received his first guitar one Christmas. It had been bought in Knoxville for $3.00. This was probably 1940. The gifts all depended on the family finances which were directly tied to the tobacco sales. If it was a good year they got a few small gifts. If not, it was slimmer. In late November or early December J.M. Barr and Grandpa would hire a truck and haul their air-cured tobacco to market in Knoxville. Without the returns from the tobacco crop there was no financing for Santa Claus. Charles says that he was eight years old when he first suspected the truth about Santa. J.M. Barr helped clear that up when Charles saw him the afternoon before Christmas carrying in a big grocery bag into their house. At this time the Oakes family lived in the small house across the creek from where they lived later.
Christmas was also a time for joking around. Charles remembers when Lewis Bivens, operator of the Gudger's store in Liberality community, asked him to take a package and put it under the Christmas tree at St. Mary's Methodist Church for Tom McDonald. Charles did it. When they opened the presents Tom received a set of false teeth and a plug of chewing tobacco. Tom later got back at Lewis. One day Lewis got a call from the Etowah train depot telling him he had a crate waiting on him. He drove down and received the crate. When he opened it it had a mangy old bird dog waiting on him. Charles remembers Lewis Bivens as a fine fellow. He recalls times when Lewis would make up a gift box of groceries at Christmas and send them to some of the poorer folks in the community.
As you celebrate Christmas this year I hope that you'll think about all the nice things that you receive and realize that no matter whether it is plentiful or not, the gifts are symbolic of gifts offered to a baby in a manager. This baby was the greatest gift ever given. He is the Messiah, the one who was given by God to take away our sin and to right our wrong relationship with God. Through this gift each of us has the opportunity to re-connect with God.
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