new content added 03/01/2017
'Lil Bits index
Resident of the Month Bio index
new content added 03/01/2017
'Lil
Bits index
Resident of the Month Bio index
Thornton Manor Residents Lansing |
| Thornton Manor Memories of Christmas
Past By Jo Konichek Several residents of the Thornton Manor Nursing Center recently shared some of their favorite Christmas childhood memories. After listening to their stories, it makes one appreciate such things as plug-in Christmas tree lights, lots of delicious food for Christmas dinner, many beautifully wrapped presents under the tree, embossed greeting cards with angels, and many other holiday delights we sometimes take for granted. Now, and hopefully in the next millennium, sharing family Christmas traditions will keep the true spirit of the holiday season alive in the hearts of young and old alike. |
Lucille Byrnes
|
Lucille Byrnes spoke of hitching up their
team of horses to the sleigh with big blankets to wrap in
and hot flat irons on the floor to keep their feet warm.
They painstakingly cut their way through huge snowdrifts
in the bitter cold to make it to church, then it was on
to Grandma’s house. Lucille usually got clothes and
a doll for Christmas, but she was happy. ~*~
|
Marguerite Beck
|
Marguerite Beck said, “My favorite
thing was to wait for Santa. He’d knock on the door
and my brother was so scared, he wouldn’t go near
him.” She said her mom would never put the tree up
or decorate it with candles until they were in bed. They
usually received lots of gifts, mostly clothes. Her
parents put away $7 each month in order to pay for the
Christmas presents. And the next thing you knew,
Christmas was upon them again. She said, “One year I
got a big, beautiful doll and my brother got mad, threw
it down the stairs, and broke its head off!”
Marguerite cried then but she laughs about it now. ~*~
|
Luella Gibbs
|
Luella Gibbs got her last china doll with
real curly hair at age 11. “We usually got two
gifts, most were homemade,” she said. They would put
their Christmas tree up the Sunday before Christmas. It
would reach as high as the ceiling. They rode in bobsleds
with blankets over their heads. “When my husband was
little, all he had one Christmas for dinner was bean soup
with hardly and beans! It took them three days to get
groceries in North Dakota where he lived,” Luella
stated. Luella said there were hard tmes as well as good
times. She’ll never forget one year when there was a
flu epidemic. They couldn’t go to school and they
hated getting shots from the doctor. “My mom almost
died from the flu, it was so bad many children
didn’t survive,” she reflected. On the lighter
side though, she remembered, “Mom used to make
popcorn balls and lots of candy.” ~*~
|
Ruth Hawes
|
A favorite memory for Ruth Hawes was her
coffee grinder. When her mom would come home with
groceries, including coffee beans, Ruth would take some
beans and put them in her own little grinder. She would
be so tickled. They would cut their own tree, decorate it
with popcorn strands, candles with holders, and colored
paper ornaments. “One year my sister came down from
Dubuque and tried to cook our dinner. She cooked the
goose so long it was too tough to eat!” Ruth said. ~*~
|
Gert Darling
|
Gert Darling will be celebrating her 90th
birthday this Christmas Eve! Her favorite childhood
memory is when her mother made doll clothes out of
taffeta, trimmed with pretty buttons. She misses those
happy days with the smell of pine throughout the house
and their cast iron stove. “We were happy with what
we had. Christmas is too commercialized now,” she
stated. Gert also said how amusing it was when her
husband used to trim the branches of the Christmas tree
until there was almost no tree left. ~*~
|
Sarah Wilkins
|
Sarah Wilkins loved her fancy dress, and
doll with a buggy. Each of the kids would get a cup and
saucer with one toy. They had a cabinet with glass where
they would put a toy, but they weren’t allowed to
play with it. However, they were always happy at
Christmas. There were nine in her family. They would
string popcorn for the tree. “But we couldn’t
light the candles on the tree unless mom was right there
to watch it in case of fire,” Sarah remembered. ~*~
|
Lenore Spinner
|
Santa came on Christmas Eve at the
Spinner home. Dad would play the violin and the kids
would sing. Postage stamps cost two or three cents.
Lenore Spinner smiled as she recalled the events that
took place at her home as a child. They had to go to bed
early for church Sunday where they would sing Christmas
carols. “We would go around town and greet everyone
with a Merry Christmas.” Lenore said she has many
fond memories of days gone by. ~*~ Notes: Lenore Spinner, 1910- 6/24/2001, buried in Gethsemane cemetery. |
Anna Kulps
|
“Where does Santa come in
Daddy?” Anna Kulps recalled as one of her favorite
memories. Her dad put up storm windows that only opened
up a little bit. “I always wondered how Santa made
it through the little gaps in the windows!” she said
with a gleam in her eye. “We had different colored
wafers with imprints of Jesus, Mary and Joseph that were
blessed in church then brought home. We would break them
for our Christmas Eve dinner.” ~*~ Notes: Anna (Paulauskas) Kulps |
~Allamakee Journal, Lansing, IA, 22
Dec. 1999
~photos & article contributed by Errin Wilker
~additional notes added by Allamakee co. coordinator
~*~*~
Thornton Manor Residents Celebrate 100th and 110th Birthdays
Happy 100th birthday to Laura Fruechte
(left) born March 29, 1909, and happy 110th birthday to
Sarah Wargin Wilkins (right) born March 27, 1899. Both
are residents of Thornton Manor Nursing Center in
Lansing, Iowa. Lansing Centenarians Celebrate Birthdays
Two residents of Thornton
Manor in Lansing recently celebrated their 100th and
110th birthdays this past March. Now 100, Laura Fruechte
was born March 29, 1909 in Lansing. Sarah Wilkins was
born March 27, 1899 in Harpers Ferry and is 110. ~newspaper clippings & photos, March
or April 2009 |
~*~*~
Return to 'Lil Bits
index
or
Resident
of the Month Bio index
