REMEMBRANCES OF CHRISTMASES PAST – Helen Stansbury, ‘X’ marks the spot of her Christmastime memories
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HELEN STANSBURY
By Missy Klatt
Helen Stansbury grew up on a farm three miles north of Glenwood City on County Road X. She was the youngest of six children born to Anna and William Burmester. She had three older sisters and two older brothers.
At Christmas time they cooked a lot. Her mother made fruitcake during the first part of December and Helen said that it was nice and mellow by Christmas after it had been “painted” with some rum. She goes on to say “we made tons of cookies and frosted them.” Helen explains that they had a couple of large tin cans with lids, she thinks they were called shop cans, full of cookies all trimmed out.
Helen said that they always seemed to have company forever during the Christmas season. She said people didn’t call each other back then, they would just stop by and her mom always had the coffee pot ready to go. “So everyone that came got coffee and cookies.” Helen said this was actually true at anytime of the year. “Mom always said, if it was ten miles, oh you got a long ways to go, so you better have some coffee and cookies.” Helen chuckles at the memory.
On Christmas day they would always have a big meal which was usually chicken, sometimes two or three of them. Along with the chicken there was mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberries, homemade dill pickles, refrigerator pickles, and the vegetable was what ever they had on hand, mainly carrots that were saved from the garden. She goes on to say that nothing was bought, everything was homemade.
On Christmas day, her grandparents would usually stop by sometime during the day.
Helen recalls her mom’s dad over at their house quite often when she was young. Her dad got their first TV in 1950 and she remembers her grandpa sitting in the chair in the corner looking at the television and he said (in German) “oh my goodness, just think, all that is coming through the air.” Helen continues, “he sat and looked at that and shake his head, he was so amazed.”
Christmas Tree — This is a photo of one of the tree tops that Roger brought home from up north after shooting it down.
Sometimes they would have a real Christmas tree and sometimes not. She remembers the old blown glass ornaments and that they would carefully put them on the tree. Their tree would always stay up until Epiphany (the end of the twelve days of Christmas). She recalls putting the heavy lead tinsel on their trees. She said they had lights on their tree but they would never put them on for too long because the bulbs would get really hot.
They always got a present at Christmas time that was homemade. One year she recalls getting a little suitcase that was filled with doll clothes when she was six or seven years old. She didn’t know it at the time but her mom made all the clothes and her dad made the suitcase out of peach crate boards. Another gift she remembers fondly is a store bought doll that she got and named Susan. Years later she named her first daughter Susan. She said she still has her doll but it’s in poor shape after being played with so much by her and her older daughters when they were young.
On Christmas morning they would have to wait until after chores and breakfast before they could open their presents.
When Helen first started school she went to the Schillinger school for first and second grade which was two and a half miles by road or if the took the short cut through a pasture it was a little over a mile, however they couldn’t do that in the winter because the snow was too deep. Then the next year she didn’t go to school at all, her mom taught them, because the two school districts were fighting about who went where. The Sunny Slope school won the battle of where they went to school and Helen finished grade school (through 8th grade) there. She then went on to Glenwood City High School graduating in 1955.
For Christmas programs at Sunny Slope they put up a stage. They laid down cinder blocks and then put planks on top. They used bed sheets for the curtains. Helen played the piano for all the Christmas programs, third – eighth grade. The piano was along side the stage so it too was behind the curtain “oh , I thought that was the cat’s meow” enthuses Helen. Helen played all the songs for the programs and she played them all by ear. She still plays music by ear.
Besides the songs they also did plays for their Christmas programs. Santa would come and everyone would get a goody bag with an apple, orange, chocolate drops and ribbon candy.
Decorating — Helen (left) is shown here with her five youngest children decorating the house at Christmastime.
Helen tells a story about her favorite teacher, Marie Hirsh. “One day we were sitting in school and the side wall where the chimney went up was starting to burn up where the chimney was. I remember Marie pushing one of the tables up to that wall and she jumped up on the table and she took her hand and she pulled out all that burning fiber board. She burned her hands. She was out of school quite a while (maybe three weeks) before she could come back. She saved the school.”
When she was a child they attended Trinity Lutheran Church in Glenwood City. For their Christmas programs there was a lot of singing, a lot of music and they would have pieces to say. They would also get a goody bag at church but Santa didn’t deliver those.
As a family they would go to church on Christmas day, depending on the roads.
In 1955 Helen married Roger Stansbury. They were married just shy of 68 years when he passed. They lived on a farm just down the road from where Helen grew up. Together they had ten children; Randy, Susan, Pamela, Wade, Carol, Dan, Joyce, Amy, Tim and Sara.
Helen continued the tradition of a lot of Christmas baking when she had kids including making fruitcake early in the season. Christmas day meals were also similar but after a while the chicken changed to turkey and they also added ham. Helen remarks that some of the kids didn’t like turkey and some didn’t like ham but they used it all. They always had a full house of family and friends.
One year on Christmas morning when the kids were little she said she woke up and she heard all this chattering in the house, the kids were all sitting under the Christmas tree looking for the presents with their names on it. Helen stated
Christmas Card — The photo shown here is of Helen and her Dog Fido in 1940. They used this photo for their Christmas card that year.
that her kids were always a happy bunch.
During deer hunting season Roger would go hunting up north near Spooner and he would shoot the top of a pine tree and bring it home for their Christmas tree. Helen remarks that they would be beautiful.
After her kids grew up Helen talks about how they would shop for their kids. “We would go to Walmart usually and we had two shopping carts.” The year after they all got married they all got a crock pot for Christmas, different sizes that they needed. “We went through the check out counter and the lady looked art our cart and she said ‘who gets all these crockpots?’ we said well our kids, “I want to be one of your kids too’ she said.” One year they bought blankets for everyone.
Helen has 22 grand kids and close to 40 or more great kids, she hasn’t counted them lately and there always seems to be a new addition. With so many in the family it’s hard for them all to get together at Christmas but this year she will be going to Dan and Julie’s house for Christmas dinner where some of the other family members will also be present.