Christmas Past

It was a fond memory for him and he had no regrets for those times. He then went on to speak of how when he was a boy he grew up on a farm and looking back he knew that his was an impoverished family. But on Christmas morning after the chores were done his father would start to gather up things about the place to deliver to families who lived around that were, even more, worse off than his.

Judging by the age of this man the time would have been during or just after the great depression of the thirties. He spoke of taking chickens and eggs, some meat and potatoes, apples and turnips to different homes within his community. He remembers going to one farmhouse where he was struck by just how poor the occupants must be. The family lived in the kitchen which was warmed by an old kitchen wood stove. The family that lived there was a young couple with three children under the age of five. He remembered that the rest of the house was shut off because not a single window had all of the glass in it. Broken or missing panes meant that the winter was everywhere within that house except in the kitchen. His father brought in some things and while his dad talked to the couple this man looked around the kitchen at the places where everyone slept and realized how lucky he was even being poor himself.

He spoke to one of the boys. He said, “Did Santa Clause bring you anything at all?”

“Oh yes,” cried the little boy, “It’s been the best Christmas ever.”

The man felt stunned and wondered what could possibly have been given to these kids for such a response. The boy took his hand and pulled him over to the corner of the kitchen where on the floor, in an apple box by the stove lay the family dog. The boy said “Look, Daisy had puppies last night. She had three of them. One for each of us.”

How this man told this story without crying was beyond me because the tears were running down my cheeks just listening to it. He really didn’t say much more except that sometimes we really have to look for a blessing, but if we look hard enough we can find something.