Loren Heffern: “I just love everything about Christmas.”
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LOREN HEFFERN
By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — Loren Heffern, a resident at the Colfax Health and Rehabilitation Center, says he loves everything about Christmas.
On the day of the interview with the Colfax Messenger, he was even showing off his “special hat” — a black cowboy hat with red reindeer antlers.
“I love Christmas. And I love the little kids. I love all little kids. I was Santa Claus once. I had a big beard like this. I was Santa Claus for them. They’d sit on my lap. It was a good time. We had fun,” he said.
“Christmas is the season of happiness. All the Christmas cards. I just love it all,” he said.
Loren, age 77, grew up in St. Paul and lived his whole life in the Twin Cities area. He was never married and moved to The Oaks in Menomonie to be closer to a niece who lives in Elk Mound. More recently, he moved to Colfax Health and Rehab.
“I like it. It’s really nice over here. I like Wisconsin,” Loren commented.
“All the trees and ‘mountains.’ It’s beautiful over here in Wisconsin. I didn’t know that before,” he said.
“When my ma was living, we had Christmas at her house. She would cook all day long. She would cook a big meal. She would cook a big pot of pea soup for my sister’s husband. He liked it. She was Swedish. She made a lot of the Swedish food. We had presents. We had a whole wall full of presents,” he said.
“About six o’clock, we’d go to the next-door neighbors and stay there for a while,” Loren noted.
“I had aunts and uncles who would come over for Christmas Eve. We’d have all kinds of presents up against the wall around the tree. We had a good Christmas all the time. I just love Christmas. Being around the little kids,” he said.
“I’d pass out candy at Halloween. I worked at the food shelter for Christmas one time. That was interesting. We had presents we handed out to the little kids. We gave them presents. I just love the season. Snow. The cold weather. I like everything about Christmas,” Loren said, adding, “I just love kids. I’m a sucker for a kid.”
“And all the little kids. My nieces and nephews. I’d buy presents for all of them. I had a good time,” he said.
Loren does not remember much about Christmas programs at church or at school.
“I was in a play at church one time. I played one of the shepherds. That was kind of fun. There was the big stable up front,” he said.
“I lived in St. Paul for 60 years. Then I moved to The Oaks. Then I had a bad foot. Had surgery on my toe. Then I came over here about four months ago. I like it here. Everybody is so nice to me. They get me dressed in the morning. Everybody is friendly,” Loren said.
Swedish sylte
When he was growing up, Loren’s mother did Christmas baking.
“She made all the Swedish food. She made sylte,” he said.
Sylte is a savory dish made with meat, white peppercorns, whole allspice, a bay leaf, whole cloves, onion and vinegar. The meat is boiled until tender and then is cut into pieces. Gelatin is added to the stock. Then it is poured into a mold and refrigerated until it is set.
“She made all kinds of food. She was a good baker. She could make big rolls,” Loren said.
Loren recalled a certain day when his mother had baked bread.
“One day when I came home from grade school, there was loaf of bread on the table. I cut off one piece and ate it with butter. Pretty soon the whole loaf was gone. My mother said, ‘What happened to the bread that was on the table?’ I said, ‘I don’t know what happened to it.’ She said, ‘You ate it, didn’t you.’ I said, ‘Yup, I did.’ I couldn’t lie to my mother,” Loren said.
“It was so good and fresh and hot. After that, she hid it, so I wouldn’t find it,” he said.
“I had a good family. Cousins. I had three brothers and one sister,” Loren said.
“My brothers were twins. But one was skinny. I looked more like my brother’s twin than the one that was a twin. He was born thin. Me and my brother were heavier,” he explained.
“I have all kinds of nieces and nephews. A couple of times my niece wanted to go out for supper, so she asked if I could watch my (great niece). So what do you do? We watched ‘The Little Mermaid.’ Every time she came over, we had to watch The Mermaid. I’d give her some ice cream, and she’d sit there like a little angel. She always said, ‘Take me to Uncle Loren’s,’” Loren said.
“My neighbor would bake cookies. I’d have so many cookies and would put them in the freezer. My cousins would come over and we’d have cookies and coffee. We had cookies all year around. She made me cabbage rolls sometimes. Green peppers. I loved them, too. I like any kind of food,” he said.
Christmas presents
When asked if he remembered any of the presents he got as a child, Loren laughed.
“It’s been so long ago. I suppose I got some clothes. Maybe a camera or a radio,” he said.
One thing Loren did remember is his mother’s punishment when they misbehaved — and their father’s remedy, who apparently was a softy at heart.
“If we misbehaved, my mother would send us to our room without supper. But my dad would bring us food. Once she came in and saw us eating. ‘Where did you get that?’ ‘Dad brought it for me,’” Loren said.
“I like family and good friends. I had a lot of good friends I went fishing and camping with. I loved to get out of town and go up north and camp and fish and hunt. I did a lot of fishing when I was younger. I liked to keep busy,” he said.
