PRESENTS & TURKEY DINNERS
Seasonal exhibit now on display in the Cut Knife Library, 113 Broad Street.
“The first thing I saw as I was opening my present were two little plastic feet in white shoes with real buttons on the straps, then a pink dress with green flowers, and then… I saw eyes – eyes that opened and closed! I bent her back, and her eyes closed, then brought her back up and her eyes opened. She was the best present I’d ever had!” ~ Lyn McCullough-Tarr, page 61
“Val’s favorite gifts were a baby doll and a monkey pajama bag. Her doll was real to her and she played with it for hours. It needed a trip or two to Kathy’s Grama Woodward’s for repairs; Grama Woodward knew how to carefully remove her head and glue the eyes back into place. Val still has that special doll – a little worse for wear…” ~ Bonnie Ramsay, page 27
“One Christmas when I was about ten years old, I remember all I wanted was a wrist watch. I spoke to “Santa” about my wishes. I could hardly wait… Was I ever disappointed when on Christmas Eve, I discovered a large box under the tree with my name on it. How could this be… I was so excited when I unwrapped the big box, removed all the balled up newspapers surrounding a tiny box in the center…” ~ Iris Murphy, page18
“The last Christmas, my sister Elaine and I got some fountain pens from Santa. We were happy not to have to keep dipping our pens into the ink well.” ~ Janet Robertson, page 31
“I remember… Going to the Grandparents with the team and cutter or team and sleigh. The cutter was made from an old Ford Coupe cab with sleigh runners underneath it. It had a front seat and a “rumble seat” where we kids sat. It also had a wood heater. The sleigh had a box on it with benches inside to sit on and “horse hide” blanket. In later years we went by car.” ~ Joyce Hewson, page 12
“When the snow came, the car was put up on blocks in the garage; the battery was taken out and attached to the radio in the house. We did not have electricity then. Dad listened to the radio broadcast of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey games on Saturday nights. There were other programs that we all enjoyed such as “Fibber Magee and Molly, “Lux Theater”, etc.” ~ Beth Piche, page 24
“Irene and Ken remember the cold, snowy Christmas of 1947. Ken was closing up their shop in preparation for heading off to Saskatoon to marry Irene. A school boy stopped by to sell the last ticket for a turkey raffle. Ken bought the ticket – for $0.25… Guess who won the turkey? It weighed over 20 lbs and Irene cooked it up. They remember eating that $0.25 turkey well into the New Year.” ~ Ken and Irene Pook, page 25
“Christmas dinners were mostly made from farm produce. We bought staples like sugar and salt. They hauled wheat to Unity in exchange for flour. Dried fruits such as raisins, peel and walnuts were purchased to make Christmas cake and mincemeat. Puddings were made by putting them in a canner for three hours… We enjoyed our sealer of wild strawberries to put over homemade ice cream. We had Japanese oranges that only came at Christmas time and were in wooden boxes that were tied together in bundles of two with grass-like ropes… The vegetables for the Christmas meal were carrots, turnips and cabbage. These vegetables were stored in the cellar and were just as tasty as the fresh ones bought in the store today. There were no green vegetables like lettuce, celery, green onion, tomatoes or yams. Turkeys were home grown or bought from a neighbour and killed just before Christmas. They were so moist because they were never frozen. One can only imagine the work our mothers had to do to cook such a beautiful meal.” ~ Irene (Stonehouse) Petovello, page 23
“This gathering of the clan would find us squeezed around the breakfast-nook table, the over-flow seated at a card table in the kitchen, or in the living room or laundry room. As we grew into teenagers and outgrew that space, a sheet of plywood on saw-horses in the attached garage was pressed into service. There a wood fire would be crackling in the heater and joy would be unrestrained!” ~ Amy Singh, page 49
Posting “After the Turkey Dinner” on Boxing Day.
Previously: Waiting for Santa | From Tinsel to Electric Lights | Santa Claus Day & Shopping Local | School Concert to Christmas Concert | The School Concert, Part 2 | The School Concert, Part 1 | Intro to Prairie Christmas.
If you have any memories of early Christmases in the Cut Knife area that you’d like to share with our readership, please email or add to the comments below. We’ll put them all together in a final blog post in early January.
All excerpts in this Prairie Christmas blog series will have been taken from Prairie Christmas: A Collection of Stories and Recollections published as A Clayton McLain Memorial Museum Project, Cut Knife, Saskatchewan 2006 – 2007. Remaining copies are available for purchase for $10. See the website’s Gift Shop page here.
~ Debbie M.
Clayton McLain Memorial Museum 