Christmas at the farm

We spent several Christmases at the Wright family farm where my Mom was raised.  We often stayed with my Granny in a little wide place in the road called Dixie about 10 minutes from the farm.  We did that because the farm house was full of others who came in for the holiday.

But the most fun was when we stayed at the farm with everyone else.  Before we all arrived my Uncle Jr would go out on the ridge and get a scrub cedar for the Christmas tree that sat at the east end of the house.  We'd play outside in the cold with the other cousins who had come for the holiday.  I remember coming in to the house, getting warm and falling asleep after a busy day.

One Christmas we traveled to the farm in our '55 Chevy.  Mom had to pack the trunk in such a way that she could hide the gifts from Santa Claus that would be under the tree on Christmas morning.  That year I had asked for cowboy boots.  I was thrilled when I opened one of my packages and found the brand new pair of brown cowboy boots with round toes and the fancy stitching up the sides.  The first thing I had to do as soon as I got a chance was try them out.  I went straight for the manure pile outside the dairy barn and tested them for farm use.  My Mom just couldn't appreciate my need to do that.

Another year we traveled to the farm in our brand new '64 Olds.  We had picked it up just a few days before we made the trip.  In fact, I remember our license plate arriving from the dealership at the farm.

The arrival of the snow on Christmas Day was almost better than the new car.  We got somewhere around 6" and the farm became a winter wonderland.  The funnest part was sledding on the hill across the road from the farm with my cousins.

To add to the atmosphere we got some old tires (before the EPA) and set them on fire to give us a place to get warm and dry out while we went up and down the hill.  We didn't have a lot of fancy sleds.  We improvised.  We got the hood of an old Crosley car with it's turned down nose (when it was on the car), flipped it over and rode it down the hill.  We could usually get 5 of us on it.  There was no steering it.  It went where it wanted to go...very fast!  It was a blast.  I can't imagine a ready-made sled being nearly that much fun.  We won't talk of the danger of the sharp edges.

There was one serious store-bought sled that I remember.  We took turns riding it down the hill.  One time my cousin Dan and I went down together on that one.  The two of us could get into more trouble at the farm.  In this case we went flying down the hill laughing all the way until we realized we were heading very quickly for the pond at the bottom of the hill.  It was hit a fence post or take a very cold bath in the pond.  We "chose" the fence post and it knocked my cousin a little silly...all the more fun.

I even remember my Dad, who wasn't much for outside things like this, taking that sled down the hill for a ride.  He didn't go straight down like we did so he avoided the choice of the pond and fence post.  Instead, he made as sharp a turn as he could...and spilled everything in his pockets on the hillside.  That included a pocket knife, change and probably a fingernail clipper besides his keys.  We laughed as we picked up all the items thinking about seeing my Dad come down the hill.

We flew down that hill all day except for a few breaks for food.  By evening the hill was icing up and the Crosley hood got even faster.  I don't think I've ever had that much fun sledding since.

Another Christmas I remember a bunch of us being there.  The women got the food together for us, cooking a pot of soup on a couple of burners to get enough heat to it to finish it off.  The kitchen counter was lined with goodies and we all ate our fill and laughed until our sides hurt.

The memories keep flooding back as I write.  I'll have several more posts with antics from the farm.  It was a childhood dream.  And I don't remember the "things" I got as much as the fun times with family.