Page 155 - People & Places In Time

Eight
CHRISTMAS AT 149 ‘B’ STREET is the Christmas from my earliest memory. There are some vague images of Christmas at the Palm street house, the first home for Carol and me, but these are for the most part of a tinsel covered tree with a few packages beneath, little else comes to mind. Any family gathering that included din- ner and presents being opened would happen at that home on ‘B’ street, at Grandad and Grandmas.
Of course, there would be Dad and Mom, Carol and myself, Grandad and Grandma; you could also find Ralph and Pearl (Heckman), Charles and Velma (Pruner), dad’s sisters with their husbands, and our cousins Chery and Chuck Pruner; each one year younger than Carol and me. I remember us all sitting around the dining table, but I don’t know how in that very small dining room, any way there we sat, all twelve of us.
During those earlier years it was colder by Christmas time than it seems to be these days. Exeter being Orange country, we were always mindful of the fruit freezing. My uncle Charles had a fruit packing house with a cold storage, located just behind the football field. If the citrus needed to be picked to avoid freezing, then Charles might not make it to dinner on time. One Christmas eve that I recall, Dad and I drove to his pack- ing shed to check on timing; I don’t know if he made it that night or not. My recollec- tion is that of my uncle standing upon a truck bed that was being unloaded and waving; “merry Christmas, be there when I can”.
The families began arriving at around 6:00 PM on Christmas Eve. This was as exciting an evening as I could imagine, the resulting expectation in this young boy grew as the night drew ever closer. When the night finally arrived . . . . to sit watching as each family came through the front door only prodded my anticipation even more. Presents would pile ever higher beneath the small tree setting on a table at the front window. The living room was arranged with seating for all, so that following dinner the presents would be opened here. The top of Grandmas upright piano at the far end of the room was covered in angle hair, assorted candles and Christmas figures with a wood Seth Thomas chiming clock sitting at the center; this same clock sets beside me today, in my
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