Christmas Eve in Calvert

Christmas in Calvert

Top: Gift Wrapping in Conitz Dry Goods Store

Middle: Conitz Dry Goods Store After It Was Rebuilt The Last Time

Bottom: Keeling Grocery At Christmas After Remodeling

I was going to design a nice Christmas card to go on my blog today. But, when I started drawing in my sketchbook, the top drawing is what resulted! (Look on Virginia Vaughan's blog today, http://www.vvaughan.blogspot.com/ for a nice Christmas design. Her design was used on t-shirts for her school's choral group .)

Instead of a card, I remembered Christmas at the store. In both stores, the two that I remember, one before the last fire, and the rebuilt store, we were busy at Christmas and the arrangement was basically the same. The whole family and several clerks worked. The store stayed open until all the possible customers had left Main street. So Santa Claus came to see us after the store closed and the various families could make it to our house for cookies, sandwiches, chips, and soft drinks, and egg nog. They came bearing many packages. From the store, we always got gifts wrapped in the store boxes that had once held ladies hankies, panties, slips, or, sometimes a larger box that held several pairs of snuggies, if you were getting something like a blanket. Everyone received a small thread box with money-$1 to $5.

We grew up around the store. In my drawing, I have shown two little girls behind the counter, standing by Toot. Grandma is bent over, putting ribbon on a package while another person brings items to wrap to the counter. A customer's child watches from the other side of the counter. Grandpa is sorting through a stack of blue jeans, looking for the right size, while two customers wait. Under the counter, you can see layaway packages and a box full of ribbons used to decorate the packages. We saved all the bows from our Christmas and birthday gifts and added those to the box of bows at the store. There was a roll of string, a roll of brown butcher paper, a roll of white butcher paper, assorted paper sacks, scissors, a yard stick, tape measure, scotch tape, etc. under the counter opposite the cash register, for everyday wrapping of packages.

The daybook and journal are on the counter in the foreground along with some items that were typical purchases. Handerchiefs, Atom Bomb perfume, Royal Crown hair dressing, and towels.

On top of the cash register is the little Cupie type doll that advertised Lee overalls, with a little engineers cap. (The cash register is still being used in Mud Creek Pottery!) There was another little Cupie doll that had on western jeans.

We had some standard wrappings with some strips of ribbon, taped on the back. Sometimes a flat bow was added. Irvin had a little twist of ribbon that he usually did, that reminded me of a man's tie. And then there were the pre-made bows. And another bow that was made something like a figure 8. Grandma showed me how to curl certain types of ribbon by sliding the scissors along the underside. We had to do them kind of fast, if there were a lot of customers coming in to pick up packages or shopping at the last minute when they felt they could let go of their money.

I preferred gift wrapping and decorating to waiting on customers or using the cash register. I was always afraid I would make a mistake with money, so I sweated bullets every time I had to use the cash register. And I was shy, so it was hard to wait on people. Even after all those years and growing up helping around the store. But, if I had a pleasant customer that I knew, and they were patient, and I was successful in helping them find what they wanted, and visited with them, then that was okay. Barbara remembers starting out as a tiny little girl, watching for shoplifters. We all were watching for that, along with our other duties.

As business in town declined, hours at the store were shorter. But, they still tried to stay open later to accomodate potential shoppers. And they hired less help. Some of us could stay at home and get ready for Santa Claus to come on Christmas Eve.

I still remember one cold Christmas, probably the early 60s, before Grandma died. She was deaf, and had hardening of the arteries. She loved her sweet treats, which her daughter thought was bad for her, so she didn't get any. That Christmas Eve, Grandma seated herself at our house near the kitchen door and the gas heater. We opened presents, and Toot, being a bit mischievious, brought over some Mogen David wine. She and Honey had been socializing with a couple of their relatives who introduced them to Mogan David wine for special occasions. Pappy had a fit that wine was in the house! So, Toot asked different people if they wanted some. Thelma said that Grandma couldn't have any. But Irvin and I said "Yes", and had some in one of Toot's mother's wine glasses. We went by Grandma to drink our little glass of wine, to avoid a lecture. (Everyone else had the choice of some plain grape juice with their cookies.)

We took some to Grandma. She said she really liked that grape juice and wanted more. She drank 6 glasses of it! Grandma became very lucid and awake. She had been wanting to go home to make sure her babies were tucked in bed (they were all there, of course, and grown!), but, after the wine, she was up talking and visiting and enjoying herself! (Part of her problem, it turned out, was that she was not getting enough sugar or salt!)

Thelma never did know that we sneaked that wine to Grandma! She was busy talking around the corner and didn't see us. I'm glad that Grandma got to have that small pleasure. I finally told Thelma about it last week, and she laughed.

The middle photo shows the store shortly after it opened after the last fire. This was in the late 1950s. You can see the arrangement of the store, with the cash register in the center. Shown are Irvin, Ellen Carolyn, and Emil Conitz Jr. E.C. was helping out that day. Irvin and Emil were the owners. T. J. Smith is also there. He was originally partners with Emil, then, about Depression times, he opened a grocery store in the back. After the last fire, the dry goods store was rebuilt, but Smith decided not to rebuild the grocery store. He still kept his safe in the store, and stayed around there a lot of the time. He had an outdoor rocking chair in the office area where he rested and did some business. He and Emil married sisters so they were brothers-in-law, but, also, they were life long friends.

In the bottom photo, you can see Keeling Grocery, shortly after being remodeled, and decorated for Christmas. There is an unidentified man on the left. I don't have a name for him, but he replaced Benny Gouger as a clerk when Benny went off to the Army. Also in the back are Mrs. Cloud, Mr. Gouger, and Mr. Cloud, the superintendent of Calvert ISD. Mrs. Keeling ("Toot") is in the foreground, center, and to her right is Mrs. Gouger. On the right is Mrs. Terry. The Clouds and Mrs. Terry were shopping in the store when the photographer came. Mr. Keeling, ("Honey") is leaning on the produce bin in the background.

The photo at the end of this post shows the interior of Keeling Grocery, decorated for Christmas, but looking from the back to the front of the store. You can see some of the items on the shelves, that they sold back then.

I'm sure that some of you share similar memories.

The years have become so different. This year, we decided not to do gifts, except for the grandsons. We plan to get together tonight, those of us who are left, and have presents for the boys, and have sandwiches and cookies. Tomorrow we will go over to the nursing home for cookies with Thelma, and then, possibly, Barbara and I will take our drawing materials and draw for the residents who are there. They seemed to enjoy watching us when we were sketching.

The boys are going to see that new dog movie, with the oldest grandson going back to work for a few hours. He had stitches out this morning after his ankle surgery.

So much for big family Christmas dinners and doing things that make nice memories. I guess that we didn't really think that we were doing that much when we were growing up, either. At the time, I thought that it was pretty boring and wished my friends were around to liven things up. And, I thought that our Christmas was pretty lacking of the merriment and decorations that we saw in some homes and in the movies. We seemed to spend most of our time at the store, with maybe a couple of programs and a cantata at church, a program at school or band concert to participate in, maybe something at the City Hall. But, looking back, I guess it was more like a picture than we thought it was at the time.

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I had a time getting Christmas cards done this year. I couldn't drive to get to the store to buy them. Finally got my daughter to take me to pick out cards. I did work on mailing lists and labels, while I was waiting. I am doing Thelma's for her, too, so that makes a lot of cards. And, since I don't know a lot of the people she has corresponded with, I'm not sure what to say, or which ones might have moved or, possibly, may not be alive. I went to the internet to check addresses and look for some obits! And, wouldn't you know, the computer had problems. Couldn't get on the internet for but just a few minutes at a time, for days.

So, I decided to write a general letter on the computer and insert that in with her cards, then just add a note to people who I knew needed a letter. Printed out a few pictures to send to a couple of people. But, the computer had other ideas. First, I couldn't get it to print but one copy at a time, and had to reset with each letter. Then, I couldn't get into the documents. Then the photo thing quit working. Got all those computer things working again, sort of, and started printing. Ran out of ink!

I told my daughter to just go to town and pick up the cartriges and stamps. But, no. She insisted that I had to go, when I should have been putting cards into envelopes! We got stamps at Walgreens, then went to Walmart for a two pack of cartriges. Big mistake. It took 3 hours of fighting lines and trying to get someone to open the case, to get that one little item! (No one was in the jewelry section. If I were buying gifts, I would have chosen jewelry this year, just due to the lack of long lines of impatient people!)

Then the glue wasn't sticking on the envelopes, so I used a glue stick to seal my envelopes. It's been one thing after the other! I finally finished up the last of Thelma's cards at 3 a.m. and they went in the mail this morning. I haven't even started mine, except to gather everything and make mailing labels!

I usually don't get into the Christmas mood until Christmas Eve. I kind of like the hustle and bustle, and think it is nice to write Christmas messages on Christmas Eve-by a fireplace with hot chocolate. Of course, it is usually too warm here for a fire in the fireplace! Just imagining how things should be, I guess.

So, if you are supposed to receive a card from me, I guess it will turn out to be a New Years card! I've got my cards, my labels, and stamps, so I'm going to still try for a Christmas or Christmas Eve postmark. And, those of you who read my blog, can consider my blog as my Christmas greeting to you!

Merry Christmas

to you and yours!

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Madonna and Child

Madonna and Child

Sculpture Idea

8" x 10"

Acrylic on Paper

The full moon shines on a cold winter night, like tonight, casting cool light and shadows on stone. Perhaps in a cemetery? A park? Or even floating in the night?

I thought of this piece as a rounded stone, carved just enough to hint at a mother holding a baby. Or, possibly, it could be done in clay with just a hint of blue glaze to give it the feeling of cold moonlight falling over it.

I like to do sculpture, with my hands, touching the clay and modeling it by feel. I haven't tried to carve in stone but I don't think that I would like it as much as I do the soft clay. That's funny because, before I started doing some clay heads, I hated getting my hands, and everything else, dirty. I think that it really helped me to be able to get better form into my two dimensional work.

Creating those large heads of 25 to 50 pounds of clay was an exciting project. Unfortunately, my strength has waned, and I can't do all the lifting and pounding required to work clay, and I no longer have access to a kiln. So, I have to think in terms of something smaller like papier mache, or some sort of other material. I have quite a few ideas for sculpture that I would like to complete, one of these days.

Since it is now Christmas Day, I thought that my "Madonna and Child", with a moonlit night, would be appropriate to share. On Christmas Eve, my youngest grandson and I watched the full moon rise, and he was excited to spy a planet that he had been hearing about. I'm not sure it it was Mars or Saturn as I had not heard about it.

When I painted this, I thought of the old cemetery where my son, and much of my family is buried. A beautiful park-like place near the home that I grew up in. I thought of monuments in the moonlight, over the lawn where so many now rest. A place that is still and quiet, except for the occasional rustling in the branches of ancient trees as night creatures prowl about.

We took our Mock Stained Glass Windows over to the nursing home and showed them to my aunt Christmas Eve afternoon. The sun was pouring in through the big windows in the dining room where we opened our gifts and enjoyed cookies and cold drinks. As we were holding them up to the light, I discovered that, by placing the angel over the star window, I had a completely different, and very interesting design. The rays from the star and the overlapping colors and shapes broke the angel design down even more and created more colors. That was kind of fun. My grandson didn't want to leave the windows there, so we brought them home. My aunt doesn't have a window in her room, so she wouldn't be able to enjoy the window. There isn't enough room to even hang all her Christmas cards, so I guess the windows are going to go in my own windows, or they may go in with all the other things that I am saving, created by my grandson.

Today we will have Christmas dinner with red roast and red gravy and a small ham. My daughter is cooking. She baked an orange cake and a chocolate cake for dessert last night. The orange cake still will not come out of the Bundt pan! We may have to put icing on it in the pan, and dig it out with a spoon! I thought sure that gravity would eventually take care of it, so it is still upside down on a plate. We both tried using knives to loosen the sides, but it is still stuck. I think it is a little too sticky. It seems done inside, according to the toothpick test, but, to touch it, it is really sticky.

Then the grandsons will open their gifts and we will all go back to see my aunt at the nursing home for the afternoon.

It is so different from the Christmases of the past, with a large family around. We always wanted more children around, though, since my sister and I were the children. We couldn't wait to get out and play with our friends.

My family had the dry goods store, and other men in the family had grocery stores. They stayed open as late as there were customers on the street. As the years passed, that time became earlier and earlier, so that, by supper time, the stores were closed and everyone came to our house for the Christmas tree. People came to town to buy, even in wagons, and they stayed around to socialize or to go to church the next day.

When I was growing up, the family worked at the stores on busy days. Even the kids helped out. And other people were hired to help wait on customers. We had to cashier, wait on customers, put things on the books, gift wrap, stock, put price tags on merchandise, decorate the show windows, sweep, dust, clean the restrooms, and watch for shoplifters. My favorite things were to decorate the show windows and to gift wrap. But, it was a little nerve shattering, being told to not use too much ribbon or too much tape, or paper, or string on packages. I was interested in creating a really nice looking package, but some customers just wanted their packages fast and didn't care if they had fancy ribbons or not. We made a kind of a loop out of ribbon and taped it, with a card on top. Another method was to make something that looked a bit like a man's tie, to me. And there were several strips of ribbon brought from the back side to the front, the cut in points at different lengths. Those were good for stacking on top of each other, or for mailing. And then there were bows. We didn't have to make most of them, we bought them in a big package. Or, each year, at our Christmas tree, we all saved our bows and paper to be used again at the store.

After the stores closed, a weary crew went to our house to have the family Christmas tree. It was really hard to wait for Santa, when it got to be really late. But, the store came first. Once everyone gathered, Santa made his way from the garage to the front porch with any special gifts, like bikes or wagons, or doll buggies and little tables and chairs. "Look what Santa left out here!" Daddy would tell us. "I thought I heard him!" he would add.

"I heard him, too!" others would say, trying to make us believe.

One Christmas, Santa brought my sister the pair of cowboy boots she always wanted. We were still pretty small then. My sister would not take off her cowboy boots, for days, and even slept in them, and I wouldn't move my dolls over. We shared a three quarter size bed, so it was pretty crowded in bed. And, then, the cats joined us! But, those cowboy boots. I can feel them still. They had sharp pointed toes, and were really stiff, especially in my back! She loved those boots!

We usually got things like underwear from the store, and a thread box with dollar bills in it. (No fancy wrapping for the family. But, they didn't have time to shop, they said, and so they just put the money into an empty thread box, and gave that out while presents were being passed out.) Mama, and one great-aunt always made sure that we got some nice clothes, toys, and books.

While the great-aunts were receiving things like jewelry, or furniture, or pieces to their crystal, china, or silver patterns, Daddy gave my mother gifts that just upset her. She just clenched her teeth, and held her little presents, and everyone said that he should be ashamed of himself. Of course, he laughed and thought it was so funny. He gave gifts like a Lady Gillette double edge razor and a slop jar. You may remember that happened in "All In The Family" on tv, when Archie Bunker gave Edith her own razor. Well, my dad did it years before that! His sense of humor.

The men all got things like pajamas, shirts, ties, cuff links and tie clasps-things that stayed in their boxes and were saved. Long after they died, we are still finding boxes of things that were gifts that were saved. One thought was that they would save the good things in case they should ever have to go to the hospital.

At our family Christmas tree, we would always have some sort of refreshments, cookies, cake, tuna fish sandwiches and potato chips, and, if it was cold, Mama would make hot chocolate. In later years, when you could buy it in the store, we added egg nog to the menu. One year, my great-aunt, who lived across the street, brought over some Mogan David wine in her mother's lead crystal decanter. Her sister in law had served them wind during a visit, and she wanted to do the same. The other great-aunt acted shocked. Everyone refused the wine except my uncle and I. We asked my grandmother if she wanted some wine and we thought she said she did. However, Grandma was deaf and had hardening of the arteries. When she came to the Christmas tree that night, all she wanted to do was to go home because her babies were there. She couldn't figure out that her children were grown and were there with her. My aunt had said not to give her any refreshments because it might have sugar in it, or salt, and she had read that those things were bad for people. So, she went around making sure that no one ate anything that had the bad things in it. We learned to pass the sugar and the salt under the table, so she wouldn't see us, and throw a fit. My uncle said that we should let Grandma have a little wine, so he kept my aunt busy while my great-aunt and I gave her a tiny wine glass full of wine. When my aunt discovered us, we told her that it was grape juice, and she was satisfied with that. Grandma kept wanting more of those little glasses of wine. Pretty soon, she perked up, and was talking normally, and enjoying herself. She recognized her children and was more lucid than she had been in a long time. The lack of sugar and salt had actually hurt her, and she ended up having to go to the hospital and getting IVs to put some of those things back. My aunt never would concede that people need some salt and some sugar.

Sometimes, on Christmas Day, we would drive to my mother's parents to have Chirstmas dinner with them. It didn't seem right to be away from home, and the family that I was accustomed to on Christmas. And I was eager to share with my friends what we had received for gifts on Christmas Eve.

There was a little longing for a fireplace for Santa to come down, the custom of opening presents on Christmas morning, and a big, roasted goose on a platter for Christmas dinner. Instead, we got Santa bringing gifts to our front porch, having the Christmas tree after the store closed, and turkey and red roast and red gravy for Christmas dinner.

Merry Christmas! And I hope that you are having a wonderful, memorable time with friends and family!

Be sure to look at my guest book. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find it.

If you haven't read yesterday's post, you might like to read it, including a poem by Elaine Winters.

Let me know if you see something of interest to you. Thanks for reading and for sharing.