Arlene Hones: Many Merry Christmases

BLOOMER  —  Arlene Hones and her late husband, Roger, farmed north of Colfax in the North Running Valley area for many years on the farm where Roger grew up.

After Roger passed away in May of 2013, Arlene sold the farm and moved to Bloomer.

Arlene graciously agreed to an interview and wrote down some of her Christmas memories.

The following is a combination of what Arlene wrote and an interview conducted by the Colfax Messenger.

Many Merry Christmases

This year will be my 89th Christmas season that I am blessed to celebrate with family and friends.

Roger and I enjoyed 62 years together, and we raised two children, Richard and Linda.

Christmas was always a special time of the year. We lived on the farm.

Richard and Linda attended the Running Valley country school near our home for most of their elementary school years. They participated in the Christmas program each year, which was a big community event, with gift exchanges and a program with special speaking parts and songs for the students.

Hopefully they stayed well enough to be able to attend their program since they had practiced for it for so long.

I remember one or two illnesses prevented that, and I always felt bad for the teacher, too. She had the program all planned, and then to have someone not be able to be there for their part. But it was also the season for colds and sore throats!

I remember one especially bad illness when my brother was a baby, and it includes my first memory of penicillin — or at least, I think it does.

Our dad came to the country school and got us, me and my brothers and sisters, and took us home because they didn’t think he was going to make it.

The doctor was there at the house, taking care of him. This was in the Menomonie area, and several years later, I was helping my mother with some cleaning. And in the drawer was this little tiny white capsule with needle ends, and one end was broke off.

I asked her what it was and why she was keeping it.

She said she thought it was the medication that had saved Orville’s life.

Dr. Buckley said the medication was not approved but that he had wanted to try it.

I believe that would be about the time that penicillin was coming around.

School programs

The highlight of the Christmas programs at school was Santa, who always appeared with gifts and candy bags.

The program ended with the jingle of Santa bells and “Ho! Ho! Ho!” and in he came!

I grew up in a family with nine children. We moved several times, so I attended several different elementary schools, all in Dunn County: Knapp, Boyceville and Colfax.

[Arlene is the daughter of Arnold and Elsie (Grutt) Price.]

Roger was fortunate to have lived all his life at the same place. He participated in the country school programs in the same building Richard and Linda did, in the Running Valley school.

Candy store

I don’t have special memories of my childhood school program days, but I have one fond memory of my eighth grade year.

I attended Colfax elementary school.

We of the rural area carried our noon lunches.

Across from the elementary school building was a home that had a candy store. This is where the Clifford and Phyllis Peterson home now is.

We were allowed to go across the street and purchase candy, when we were lucky enough to have a few cents to spend.

If I could get two cents and take it with me to school, I thought I was rich. Today when I see a penny on the ground, I pick it up.

My mom used to send me downtown to pick up some yeast for her or snuff for my dad. And if I would have a couple of pennies left over for change, I could go over to that candy store!

You could get a handful of candy for a few pennies. It was amazing when I think about it now.

Oh, my, how times have changed.

They had a showcase, and there were trays of penny candy. You could get two pieces of one kind or two different kinds.

But we didn’t get a lot of candy. With the size of my family, there was always a baby or a young one.

My dad always did the grocery shopping. He would get the milk check and go into town.

Our treats were usually fruit. Maybe a coconut. A whole coconut. A bag of oranges or a bag of apples. Sometimes fresh pineapple. But not very often candy.

We used to fight over the coconut milk. You had to have a knife to get the coconut out of the shell.

Seamstress

My mother was a very good seamstress. She sewed most of our clothes for us girls and some for the boys. We always had new dresses for the Christmas programs and other special events.

My dad’s relatives lived in the city. His one sister never had children. She would bring nice men’s overcoats and suits to my mother, and my mother would take them apart and clean the material, and she would sew little suits and coats for my brothers.

When I think back now, they were gorgeous. People would say “Oh, my, Elsie. Where did you get that coat?”  Or “Where did you get that dress?”

Mother would say, “Well, I sewed that.”

Mail order catalogs were so important to her. She never bought a pattern. She would look in the catalog, and she would get paper and cut a pattern.

Her family lived between Boyceville and Menomonie, and her dad would go to Menomonie to sell wood, and he also was an assessor. My mother and one of her sisters spent some time in Menomonie, taking sewing lessons.

Bringing up nine children during the Depression years, I wonder what we would have worn if she didn’t have that talent?

Picnic

I vividly remember one dress I had for a school picnic. My mother had sent through the catalog and had gotten some light orchid organdy and some white organdy, and she sewed dresses for me and my older sister. She was a year and a half older.

The dresses had big sashes with bows. And my mother had also sent for white anklets and black patent leather shoes for us to wear.

We lived back off the road a long way. My dad was working away from home, so for the school picnic, my mother packed a lunch.

I’m certain my little brother was carrying age and couldn’t walk. We walked out that driveway, which was all of a mile, and it must have been two or two and a half miles on the main road to get to school. And she was carrying her basket with food for the picnic lunch.

My brothers got so exasperated with me and my sister. It was a dirt road, and we had to stop and clean off our patent leather shoes. They were new — and we were so proud!

I can remember women at the picnic that day saying, “My goodness, Elsie, where did you get those girls’ dresses? They are gorgeous.”

My mother was always so humble. She simply said she had sewn them.

We were so proud of our beautiful dresses and our shiny shoes, I wonder if we even played with the other kids that day.

Christmas tree

I remember when I was young, our Christmas tree was cut from our woods.

It was trimmed with popcorn and paper chains, and only once each year, it had candles in special candle holders clipped to the tree.

The candle holders were little cups with a clip, and they held one little candle.

You’d set that candle in the holder on the tree — and oh, that was such a special time. There were probably six or eight of them on the tree.

Everybody would have to sit, and everybody would have to be quiet, and you would just sit and look at it because it was not going to last. With those candles burning on an evergreen tree, it wasn’t anything you walked away from. It was dangerous. But it was so special.

And the paper chains on the tree were nothing fancy. Mother didn’t have colored paper. We’d have to color the paper first before we could make chains. She would make a paste out of flour and water so we could paste the strips together.

It was a very special time. We would sit there, and Dad would light the candles. But they didn’t burn long. And that was the end. That was always on Christmas Eve.

We never put the Christmas tree up until Christmas Eve. Otherwise it would dry out too much.

I can’t remember about getting our gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, but we were farmers, and so much of everything revolved around chores.

When I was growing up, my Christmas gifts consisted of mostly new clothing, long stockings and long underwear, some special small gift, fruit, and ribbon candy, which we often hung on the Christmas tree for decorations. I suppose we ate the candy when we took the tree down. We were never supposed to waste food!

The house always looked so empty when the Christmas tree came down. It was like everything had been taken out of the house.

When I was growing up, I never had to worry about having someone to play with, having so many brothers and sisters, and my dad would make toys for us.

On the farm

Roger enjoyed cutting our Christmas tree for many years. Richard and Linda made the trip with him most of the time, choosing just the right one and helping to drag it out.

The last years Roger and I were together, we opted to get a pre-cut tree, and then we went to an artificial tree.

I miss the fragrance of the fresh-cut trees.

I remember Roger felt so bad when the time came that Richard and Linda were away from home. He was left to get the Christmas tree alone, and then he always wanted me to come with him.

We were fortunate enough that, after our children left home and our grandchildren had grown up, the Neubergs moved into our neighborhood.

I used to babysit for the youngest one, Luke, when Lisa started to teach.

Those kids became our second grandchildren. They called us Grandma and Grandpa, and Luke went with us for a few years to get the Christmas tree.

With family

The first several years, our Christmas celebration was divided between Roger’s family at Chippewa Falls or with my family for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, until they moved to Washington, and they were no longer with us.

We then enjoyed our celebration at home. When Richard and Linda married, and we had four grandchildren, that made it so special.

With the other grandparents being from the Colfax area, they spent Christmas Eve with them, and then they came to the farm for the night, and we had Christmas Day together.

This worked so nicely. Sometimes the weather was so bad, though, they really should not have been out with the little ones. But they always made it, in spite of the weather.

Christmas Eve meals with the Hones family was oyster stew and fresh pork spare ribs and lots of Norwegian baking.

We had chicken or turkey for Christmas Day. No lutefisk, but lots of lefse and fresh breads.

My parents were German, so we enjoyed a homegrown chicken, goose or duck. Mother made a delicious fruit dressing that she stuffed the birds with. The dressing flavored the meat so that it tasted so good. She made fruit cakes, too, and frosted ginger cookies, popcorn balls and homemade candies.

Icy roads

There was one Christmas season that is so memorable to me.

The four grandchildren were in Sunday school, and their Sunday school programs and our program at North Running Valley Lutheran Church were all on the same day.

Sarah and Christie’s program was in the morning at Clear Lake.

Paul and Amy’s program was early afternoon in Barron.

And our program was in the evening at North Running Valley.

Roger and I were still farming and milking cows.

We hurried out to the barn. It was just Roger and I to do the chores. There was no talking. We knew what we had to do.

We did the chores, showered, ate a bite — and tore off for Clear Lake for the 10 o’clock service. The roads were icy.

They served coffee afterward, then we got back in the car and skated over to Barron.

Usually Roger would say, “What are we doing on these roads? We shouldn’t be out on these roads!”

But he never said a word. The grandkids were so important to him, too.

We got over to Barron, then we hurried home, changed our clothes, went back out to the barn, did the chores again, got back in, cleaned up again — and raced off to Running Valley church.

Everything went well, so it was a good day.

But the travel was terrible. The roads were so icy. I remember the stretch between Clear Lake and Barron was the worst.

It was another time to bless God for being there to get us through. God was with us, and we managed it safely and enjoyed it too!

Broken leg

There was only one year that our Christmas schedule was different.

I broke my leg one snowy frosty morning going out to the barn, scooting across the yard.

I slipped. I had Tingley rubbers on, and I slipped.

The doctor said my muscles broke the leg. I was in a cast up to my hip. I broke both bones in my leg.

I was in a cast for three months.

I broke my leg in early December, so I chose to stay home, and the family went to the Christmas gatherings.

Christmas was quite a bit different that year. The shopping was much less, but we were together, and all was well.

Decorating

Our Christmas tree decorations never changed much over the years. Several would be added each year from special events or gifts.

We soon gave up on the silver tinsel, though. Oh what a job that was! The tinsel was actually little strips of aluminum foil. You’d drape it over your hand, and you had to try and save it so you could use it again the next year. You’d very carefully take it off the tree again.

This will be the first year in 70 years that I will not put up a Christmas tree.

The last few years, David and Linda have put up the tree, decorated it and then have taken it down for me.

Now I have less room, so I will be happy with just the room decorations.

Over the years

I have seen many changes with celebrating Christmas in my almost 90 years.

Each Christmas season was a true joy and a blessing, from my childhood to my children’s time, to the joy of sharing those joys with the four grandchildren and now with the seven great-grandchildren.

So many changes, so many happy times, so much joy and pride.

Sometimes I feel with the glitter and all of the shopping done today to celebrate Christmas — are we losing the true meaning of Christmas?

Happiness, celebrating and family times are so good and so important for this special season.

Each home makes their choice of how to celebrate the holiday season, but if we keep “peace, joy and love” in the celebrating, it will be a Very Merry Christmas!