~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~
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| 1963
This is the much earlier "old - time" volume that both the daughter and the mother (in the story below) remembered and cherished, from back in the grandmother's day. |
Between my mother and her mother (my beloved Grandma Rovilla Lindsey), they collected nearly every Christmas Ideals for 60 years. The oldest one I have from their early purchases is 1947 (Ideals began in 1944). When sorting through my mom's things, I kept all the older issues that my siblings and I recalled from our childhood. How we all loved the pre-Christmas ritual when Mom got them out for us to read. We would pour over the pictures, page after page, and imagine the perfect Christmas!
The later issues from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s I passed on to the public library sale, since, for me, they lacked the same charm and nostalgia of the earlier years. Before giving them away, however, I did take an afternoon to look through every page, including the letters to the editor.
Turning to the back page of the 1991 issue, I came across this multi - layered, multi - generational (grandmother - mother - daughter) meta anecdote. The mother's letter tells the whole story that happened a year earlier (Christmas 1990) about the daughter's sweet gesture to the mom in honor of the grandmother:
I have a Christmas story I would like to share with you.
"I have Christmas Ideals, Vol. 20, No. 6, November 1963. This issue has been on our coffee table with a candle and a Bible every year since.
"Our daughter came home a week before Christmas for a day. My 91 year old mother is ill and I had not decorated as much as usual and did not put our cherished Ideals on the table.
"My daughter noticed this but said nothing. Christmas morning I found a 1990 Christmas issue of Ideals. A note enclosed said, 'Mother, it did not seem like Chritmas with our Ideals not on the coffee table, is it lost? Here is a new one for you.'"
~ From Mrs. William T. Preston, Kenova, West Virginia
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| 1990
This is the volume that the daughter bought for her mother when the grandmother was sick, the year the mom wrote the letter. |
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| 1991
This is the volume containing Mrs. Preston's letter in the Readers' Forum, p. 80 |
I knew then that I could never part with 1990 and 1991. As you can guess, I shelved them right beside my vintage 1963, an issue which -- just like the daughter in the story -- I remember vividly from every childhood Christmas. From now on, these three magazines will always go together, a sentimental holiday triumvirate.
Another thing I love about the old issues is that my grandmother went through and marked all of her favorites with a tiny red penciled "X".
This one, for example:
I cannot let the old year die
Without a thought of you;
Without a wish for Christma joys,
And New Year blessing too. . . .
It is a time when friends and kin
Meet round a common board,
To share the love and fellowship
That happy days afford. . . .
And now my warmetst wishes go
To loved ones and to friends,
That peace and joy be in your hearts,
And love that never ends.
~ Agnes Davenport Bond ~
Tuesday, January 14th
Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com
Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com
