EELK RAPIDS NNEWS LK ERAPWIDS S · 2018. 12. 19. · “I heard jingle bells ringing outside, like...
2
1 December 20, 2018 NEWS NEWS ELK RAPIDS ELK RAPIDS PRESORT STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ELK RAPIDS, MI PERMIT NO. 10 Postal Customer SERVING THE ELK RAPIDS ALDEN KEWADIN RAPID CITY EASTPORT TORCH RIVER BRIDGE WILLIAMSBURG ACME AREAS Volume XIII Issue No. 30 75¢ December 20 2018 COVER STORY continued on page 7 BY BARB MOSHER, CONTRIBUTING WRITER Lois Lamoreaux spent her first 17 Christmases in Norwood, Michigan before moving to Elk Rapids as a young bride in 1954. The 81-year-old says the holidays were simple celebrations focused on faith and family. “It’s so commercialized now,” she said. “It wasn’t at all then. We read the Bible stories and attended church and school programs, and it seems like those were the main things. We got things that were needed like pajamas, new socks, and I usually got a book from my aunt who was a teacher in Detroit.” Lois’s father would go into nearby woods to cut Christmas trees, and she remembers little clips that secured candles to the branches. “But we never lit them because of fire danger,” she said. Electricity was added to the family’s home when Lois was nine years old. Bubble lights replaced the candles, projecting a warm glow on the twisted glass icicles and shiny glass balls and bells. Some of those ornaments still adorn Lois’s Christmas trees, along with strings of beads her grandmother draped on trees more than 100 years ago. Many of Lois’s relatives lived in Norwood, and she recalls one Christmas Eve — she was five or six years old — when her parents sent her down the block to the house of her aunt and uncle. “I heard jingle bells ringing outside, like sleigh bells, and my uncle came in and told me Santa Claus had just flown over,” she said. “They told me I should go home, because he might be coming to my house next. Of course, when I got home, Santa had already come and gone.” A couple of years later, having heard Clement Moore’s famous “The Night Before Christmas” poem, Lois decided to see if Santa really filled stockings with treats. The only stockings she had were long cotton ones, similar to today’s “tights.” These she hung over the back of an old wooden rocking chair. “My mother told me those were too much to fill,” she said, smiling at the memory. One of Lois’s favorite gifts was a doll she received in 1943, a present from her mother who had been given it by Santa Claus at a church party 37 years earlier. Two of Lois’s aunts made new clothes for the doll. She eventually passed it on to her own daughter. “It’s very special,” she said. “I’m very much for old traditional things.” There was always lots of popcorn around. That’s one thing Myrna Howse remembers about her childhood Christmases. It never got strung for hanging on Christmas trees, though. With ten children in her family, it was always eaten before it could be made into garlands. “When there were that many kids, it was kind of crazy,” said the Elk Rapids resident. “But it was always a lot of fun.” Born January 18, 1948, Myrna was the sixth child of Clayton and Donna Booth. She grew up with seven sisters and two brothers in a four-bedroom farmhouse a mile down Elk Lake Road from US-31. The home overflowed with love and laughter, and Myrna’s holiday memories brim with family traditions. “We always got to open a gift on Christmas Eve,” she said. “It was always pajamas. I guess that was so we looked good Christmas morning.” Their Christmas trees were loaded with homemade ornaments, paper chains, and tinsel — lots and lots of tinsel that they wrapped in foil to save for the following year. “And we had those big, hot lights,” she said. “That’s why we couldn’t get a tree too early. Dad said we’d burn the house down if we did.” Myrna’s father was a mason, and work was often scarce during the winter months. Even so, her parents always found a way to pile presents under the tree. There was almost always at least one new sled, which was put to use immediately on the track the kids carved down the Santa and Mrs. Claus, fashioned out of the folded pages of hard cover books, circa mid-1950s. (From the Elk Rapids Area Historical Museum; photo by Barb Mosher) Simply Christmas above: Five-year-old Lois and her Christmas doll on a wooden sled in 1942. Courtesy photo at left: Lois Lamoreaux above: Ornaments from Myrna Howse’s childhood are among those decorating her Christmas trees. Photo by Barb Mosher above at right: Myrna in third grade. Courtesy photo ones, sim r w c a ev m abo at le Locals reflect on celebrations of yesteryear
Transcript of EELK RAPIDS NNEWS LK ERAPWIDS S · 2018. 12. 19. · “I heard jingle bells ringing outside, like...
1Elk Rapids NewsDecember 20, 2018
NEWS NEWS ELK RAPIDSELK RAPIDS
PRESORT STANDARDU.S. POSTAGE PAID
ELK RAPIDS, MIPERMIT NO. 10
Postal Customer
SERVING THE ELK RAPIDS ALDEN KEWADIN RAPID CITY EASTPORT TORCH RIVER BRIDGE WILLIAMSBURG ACME AREAS
Volume XIII Issue No. 30
75¢
December 202018
COVER STORY continued on page 7
BY BARB MOSHER , CONTR IBUT ING WR ITER
Lois Lamoreaux spent her fi rst 17 Christmases in Norwood, Michigan before moving to Elk Rapids as a young bride in 1954. The 81-year-old says the holidays were simple celebrations focused on faith and family.“It’s so commercialized now,” she said. “It wasn’t at all then. We read the Bible stories and attended church and school programs, and it seems like those were the main things. We got things that were needed like pajamas, new socks, and I usually got a book from my aunt who was a teacher in Detroit.”
Lois’s father would go into nearby woods to cut Christmas trees, and she remembers little clips that secured candles to the branches. “But we never lit them because of fi re danger,” she said.
Electricity was added to the family’s home when Lois was nine years old. Bubble lights replaced the candles, projecting a warm glow on the twisted glass
icicles and shiny glass balls and bells. Some of those ornaments still adorn Lois’s Christmas trees, along with strings of beads her grandmother draped on trees more than 100 years ago.
Many of Lois’s relatives lived in Norwood, and she recalls one Christmas Eve — she was fi ve or six years old — when her parents sent her down the block to the house of her aunt and uncle.
“I heard jingle bells ringing outside, like sleigh bells, and my uncle came in and told me Santa Claus had just fl own over,” she said. “They told me I should go home, because he might be coming to my house next. Of course, when I got home, Santa had already come and gone.”
A couple of years later, having heard Clement Moore’s famous “The Night Before Christmas” poem, Lois decided to see if Santa really fi lled stockings with treats. The only stockings she had were long cotton ones, similar to today’s “tights.” These she hung over
the back of an old wooden rocking chair. “My mother told me those were too much to fi ll,” she said, smiling at the memory.
One of Lois’s favorite gifts was a doll she received in 1943, a present from her mother who had been given it by Santa Claus at a church party 37 years earlier. Two of Lois’s aunts made new clothes for the doll. She eventually passed it on to her own daughter.
“It’s very special,” she said. “I’m very much for old traditional things.”
There was always lots of popcorn around. That’s one thing Myrna Howse remembers about her childhood Christmases. It never got strung for hanging on Christmas trees, though. With ten children in her family, it was always eaten before it could be made into garlands.
“When there were that many kids, it was kind of crazy,” said the Elk Rapids resident. “But it was always a lot of fun.”
Born January 18, 1948, Myrna was the sixth child of Clayton and Donna Booth. She grew up with seven sisters and two brothers in a four-bedroom farmhouse a mile down Elk Lake Road from US-31. The home overfl owed with love and laughter, and Myrna’s holiday memories brim with family traditions.
“We always got to open a gift on Christmas Eve,” she said. “It was always pajamas. I guess that was so we looked good Christmas morning.”
Their Christmas trees were loaded with homemade ornaments, paper chains, and tinsel — lots and lots of tinsel that they wrapped in foil to save for the following year.
“And we had those big, hot lights,” she said. “That’s why we couldn’t get a tree too early. Dad said we’d burn the house down if we did.”
Myrna’s father was a mason, and work was often scarce during the winter months. Even so, her parents always found a way to pile presents under the tree. There was almost always at least one new sled, which was put to use immediately on the track the kids carved down the
Santa and Mrs. Claus, fashioned out of the folded pages of hard cover books, circa mid-1950s. (From the Elk Rapids Area Historical Museum; photo by Barb Mosher)
Simply Christmas
above: Five-year-old Lois and her Christmas doll on a wooden sled in 1942. Courtesy photo
at left: Lois Lamoreaux
above: Ornaments from Myrna Howse’s childhood are among those decorating her Christmas trees. Photo by Barb Mosher
above at right: Myrna in third grade. Courtesy photo
ones, sim
rwcaev
m
abo
at le
Locals refl ect on celebrations of yesteryear
