Homestead Christmas

Part 2 – A Homestead Christmas

As we waited with concern for some word from Daddy, Mamma kept busy with her knitting. Mittens in the catalog paled beside the hand knitted ones that filled the mitten box in the back room.  Mamma was always knitting mittens for friends and us; she could do it quickly and hardly seemed to need to look.  She did a lot of knitting, crocheting and sewing once the days grew short.  Argyle socks she would make for bachelor friends of theirs too, and that was fascinating to watch.

We also spent a lot of time planning what to make for each other for Christmas. An oatmeal box could be recycled into a pretty good doll bed, by cutting out part of one side and gluing the lid on. It was a cradle that would rock. Then it could be covered with pretty paper or flour sack fabric.  One year a set of rescued wheels from a broken slinky toy turned the cradle into a baby buggy.

Sometimes we sewed doll clothes for each other, or passed on a prized Teddy bear or panda, or drew a picture.  Once Denise selected a particular piece of driftwood and carefully wrapped it for her Daddy.

Another year a much handed down baby doll was scrubbed up and a new dolly bed was made complete with bedding.  Denise and Linda sewed clothes for it by hand, under Mamma’s supervision, from flour sacks.  They used to come in the prettiest floral designs!

Finally, a calm day with no snow, icy but nice.   Was that an outboard motor?  No, definitely not.  A small airplane coming closer?  Yes!  After a low circle of the cabin it headed north toward our small airstrip. Mamma bundled us into our winter gear and we headed out at full speed.   To our great delight, it was Fred Hickock with word from Daddy.  He was fine, working, and Fred had volunteered to deliver our supplies and mail.  We eagerly unloaded the boxes and with Kayak and the sled got it all home easily.  Fred was apologetic because in the back of his small plane, the oranges and eggs had frozen!  We did not care; it was like Christmas had come early after all.

By storing the frozen items in the woodshed, we could thaw as needed and they did not spoil.  Nor did they last long as there was an immediate flurry of baking and preparing.   We all helped make cookies, decorating the cut out ones of course, and carefully packing them in tins for safekeeping.  On Mamma’s birthday, 3 days before Christmas, we were allowed to do our first sampling of our creations.  One cookie each, the others to be kept for Christmas.

The day before Christmas, we awoke to a wonderful surprise, Daddy had gotten home late the night before, AND cut a Christmas tree and brought it in!  We never had room for more than a 2-foot tree, and this one was ‘special’.  Having cut it by moonlight, he had missed the fact that it had twin tops!

We were so excited that Daddy was home and our tree was up.  It was time to get out the ornaments and the garland, paper chains, etc. that we hung around to decorate. Some we had made and some were quite old, like the honeycomb bells that had been in Daddy’s family forever and the Victorian ornaments that were also from his family with tarnished tinsel. Then the foldout ones that came from Mamma’s family in England. Not to forget the ‘Hoochy-Koochy’ beads from Mamma’s performance at the first Strawberry Festival in Haines.  Then our stockings to be put under the tree at bedtime, red topped wool socks.  And the nativity set, with baby Jesus set aside, as after all he wasn’t born yet.

The next morning, the wonder of checking our stockings and finding nuts with shells on them, ribbon candy and just maybe a tangerine.  A good year would find balsa wood airplanes in those stockings. One year Denise and Linda each got their first ball point pens.  You would have thought those were the most valuable things in the world…grown up stuff! Baby Jesus would be in his manger, and there would be mysterious boxes around the tree or under the sewing machine it sat on.

Watching her eyes when “baby” Ruth opened her gift of the surprise “new” dolly that we had all worked on made the little worn doll and the oatmeal box bed look like the best one ever in the catalog. Daddy’s serious acceptance of the piece of driftwood Denise gave him for a handle for his tool drawer was always remembered.  Every item was oohed and aahed over, and enjoyed by all.

Between the morning festivities and Christmas dinner, weather permitting we would go out and fly our balsa wood airplanes, or maybe have a quick run in the dog sled with Kayak proudly pulling us.  The main course might vary, once it was bear ham, but most years we had our plum pudding served flaming, and of course fruit cake and mince pies.  Stuffed and happy, we would fall asleep in the warmth of the wood fire and Daddy playing his guitar and Mamma singing or playing her comb.

But Christmas was not over…. when Daddy made his first trip of the New Year, he would always bring home a package from Gramma Stelting.  She just never could figure out the length of time it took for a package to reach us.  It was Christmas all over again! There was always something for everyone, books and games for the girls, maybe a new handpainted brooch for Mamma and Gramma’s special box of divinity candy, just for Daddy.

There would be neat little stuff wrapped in nearly every piece of newspaper stuffing. Linda specially recalls the year that we got the brightly colored aluminum kool-aid glasses.

The last part of Christmas was Mamma having the girls sit down and write thank you notes to friends and relatives, some just in Haines, some as far away as Oregon, California, Pennsylvania and England, who always sent Christmas through the mail.  Christmas on Glacier Point was a long season full of anticipation, giggles and wonder.

A Homestead Christmas

By the Children of Glacier Point [Denise, Linda, Nancy & Ruth]

Winter on Glacier Point

Our parents homesteaded on Glacier Point, southwest of Haines near Davidson Glacier.  They started with one daughter in the late ’40s, the second was born on the homestead and by 1955 there were four of us girls, the “Children of Glacier Point”.

Christmas was our favorite holiday and the one that lasted the longest.

At the end of fishing season, Daddy came home with the mail. Along with the boxes of schoolbooks for the winter there were usually two much awaited pieces of mail.  Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Wards Christmas catalogs or Wishbooks. Tempting books to sit high on a shelf until after the fall harvest.

Long before time could be spent on actively planning for Christmas, the potatoes had to be dug and hauled to the root cellar to be stored.  Gunnysacks that were stored empty under Linda’s mattress were pulled out and taken to the potato field.  Daddy dug the rows and eager little hands pulled out potatoes and filled buckets. Mama would sit in the lea of some trees to size, sort and bag them. This was the same place she sat to cut them up for planting in the spring. The very nicest ones got bagged up to sell then the rest were sorted for eating and for seed.  By the time all the potatoes were dug the air was cold and snow would be falling on the mountain behind the cabin.

“Hurry up girls,” Daddy would say “that snow will be down here by night.”

At last the big patch was all dug and the potatoes were stored in the root cellar, snug in their bins lined and layered with moss that had been gathered and dried by the girls in the summer. Linda’s mattress was very thin, but it didn’t seem to matter.

Finally, there was time to start the schoolwork for the year and to spend evenings looking at the Christmas Catalogs. They were full of many things to be poured over and discussed for hours by kerosene lamplight. There were things to believe you might actually receive and many things to just dream over. Tiny heads murmured over pages of dolls and cowboy toys. Who couldn’t want a REAL set of Roy Rogers’ guns and hat!  The girls gazed longingly at big sets of frontier towns, farm sets (complete with little cows and horses) and the ultimate fantasy, erector sets. The big dreams, tempered with reality, were for things that Santa was unlikely to bring — a beautiful doll with a complete wardrobe, shiny bicycles and big train sets.  We each put our initials on items we wanted, until the book would be marked with a D here, an L there, maybe an N or R all on the same thing! Although we were not shy about marking our favorites, we knew most of it was just a game and not likely to happen.  Of course there was always the wish for a pretty dress or nightgown, and those fell within the scope of possibility. Mamma would make some item of clothing for each girl if she had the fabric.

The next step toward Christmas would be the Special grocery list that Mamma would make for all the stuff just for Christmas.  Raisins, currants, brown sugar and dried fruits were all for fruitcake and plum pudding. Mincemeat for little mince tarts and perhaps some dates for the date filled oatmeal cookies — things that were only made at Christmas time.

Along with the letters, cards and grocery list, sometimes Mamma would hand Daddy an envelope that little girls hoped was an order to the catalogs.  Of course, catalog orders had to be sent quite early, so likely we never even realized when one DID go!  Often she would make a sign for Daddy to hang in the post office, wishing Happy Holidays to all their friends, because everyone would see it there.

If it had been a good fishing year and the prices weren’t too high, Daddy might bring home boxes of apples. Big red ones and the highly prized golden delicious were real treats. We used to watch intently as Daddy peeled an apple with his pocketknife, waiting to see if he could do it in one continuous length, and then whose turn it was to eat the peel!

Not long after Thanksgiving, Christmas music would start to pop up on the radio, and references to Christmas in the various radio story programs we listened to.  Our all time favorite was “The Cinnamon Bear”, a series that ran for 26 episodes and was on for many years.

Being typical of Lynn Canal and winter weather, one could plan a trip to town and then not get there…or not be able to get home for weeks Anticipating what he would or could bring was half of the fun of the season.   Some years it was very touch and go whether Daddy could get to town to pick up the special Christmas supplies and Christmas mail

One year that we all remember, Daddy went off to town fairly early in the season to work the freight ship and order our Christmas supplies.  He had hoped to make a run home between jobs so Mamma would have everything she needed to prepare for Christmas.  The weather however was not cooperative, and baking day was approaching.   Fruitcake and plum puddings needed to be made ahead of time to be their best for the holiday.  As the weather continued too stormy for a small boat to make the trip, we knew that Daddy would be working another freighter soon and might not get home before Christmas. We began to worry about the Christmas mail and any packages that might have come and even having our Daddy home.  Four little girls had very solemn faces.

continued in Part 2……

Integrated creativity — making use of a variety of different materials in new and creative ways

We are all familiar with the oft used term ‘recycle’, which as growing up we thought was just what one did to be thrifty. Recently I came across another version of the old hackneyed term, ‘up-cycle’ which meant to make something even more useful or upscale from something previously used. Sorry, but that term just does not do it for me; it is too reminiscent of up-chuck, aka to hurl or shoot the cat or vomit or “Mommy, I threw up!!!” followed by a long wail and longer lasting smell. [I don’t like the term ‘blog’ either, but that is another story.]

As I was explaining to my sisters the essence of the article, which was good despite the terminology, it hit me. What we do or have is integrated creativity. We discover new uses for both old and new things including discards, random yard sale or auction finds, and those things we forgot we had that probably were purchased with some other use in mind!

Some of this comes from having to ‘make do’ as children. When you live many miles from the store, and might only get to town once a year, creativity comes into play more often than not. Don’t have the exact item called for in the directions for any project? Scrounge around and see what you can find that might work.

Scrounge = look everywhere with eyes wide open for a potential solution.
Granted there are times when you may have to wait for that trip to the store, but often a little integrated creativity comes to the rescue and you end up with a special creation using unexpected materials. Integrated creativity does not mean you have to use unusual items, only that you keep your mind open to the possibilities. It means that you consider materials at hand and how they may complete or embellish a project, how they might preserve a memory, or create a mood. Integrated creativity combines items from different crafts or uses, in new and interesting ways. The results can range from extremely useful utilitarian items to heirloom quality gifts. Most will be unique one of a kind, and they will each contain the spirit of the maker. Old items will find life, and either bring history with it or begin something new.

Is there a trick to this? No, not really. Just keep in mind that a hook is not always a hook, or a bracket for a piece of equipment may now BE a hook!

That old board might become a primitive frame, just right for an original pen and ink sketch. That drapery fabric might make a fantastic carryall bag, or a cover for a scrapbook or a hand bound copy of the family history. Those odd washers in a jar from Grandpa? Accents on a frame, embellishments on that carryall or maybe just what you need to fix the plumbing!

We have a plan.  Scary thought!  Yes we do and we’ll try to get it rolled out over the next few weeks.
Today, nothing to do with ‘the plan’, Denise and Linda spent time together sorting and organizing some of Mother Teresa’s stored belongings.  We made progress and now when the four of us are together we will tackle the rest of the job.  We tried very hard not to get deeply involved in each box [thankfully many were labeled and only needed a quick peek to verify the contents].  Otherwise, we would have still been sitting there tripping down memory lane.

Our big ‘plan’ has to do with adding some pages or categories to this blog and sharing some more bits of our ramblings, our history, and crazy ideas with you all.

Before then, expect a revisiting of ‘Christmas’s Past’ 😉

Our youngest put a comment on FB earlier that said. “I think I will just get on the thankful train”    and then proceeded to tell some things he is thankful for.  Awesome!!!   We all need to board the ‘thankful train’ alot more often than we probably do.   There are so many things to be thankful for and I know they certainly outweigh everything else if we just think about it a bit.

I am very thankful for family, friends, a roof over my head, food on the table, and clothes on my back. I am thankful for the seasons, the changes in weather and the awesomeness of nature which never fails to have me in awe!

I am thankful that I grew up in a close knit family who cherishes the simple things in life and who are ever creative and so very supportive of one another.

I am thankful for my husband who is my biggest fan in whatever endeavors I take on, even though he may think I have ‘lost it’ at times. LOL

And last but not least I am thankful for the Lord who is always there keeping me out of harms way and leading me in the right direction. Yes I know I can be stubborn but he keeps nudging me along.

Choo choo choo the Thankful Train is chugging along, GET ON IT!!!

The property tax notices are in the mail.  Will your value be up or down, and subsequently how much will your taxes have changed?  One can challenge the assessment, but there are certain rules to follow and who knows how much time and stress that could take.
Even heard once of someone challenging because they didn’t think it was high enough.  Hmmmm, I guess there could be some intelligent reasoning behind that, but frankly it escapes me at the moment!

Regardless, this is a sure sign of fall.  Proceeded by huge spider webs in the stores and talk of ‘Black Friday’ already.  You know, that day where everyone not in their right mind gets up right after going to bed on Thanksgiving Day, puts on as many clothes as they can layer, and waits in line meeting lots of new people.  Does have potential for replacing an online dating service perhaps?  It also requires a certain amount of ‘pre-training’ in the standing, shuffling, pushing, shoving and all day marathon departments.  Definitely endurance too.
If you should wish to ignore all that, grab a book, blanket, hot cup of something and retire to a comfy chair….  www.brainstormspublishing.com

Children of Glacier Point, Book #2, Hardbound or CD

and the end of FIRE SEASON!  They do not always coincide but happily for us we’ve gotten rain and cooler temperatures at just the right time.

Fall color at Cron Produce

Off to watch a couple of the new programs on TV because…hey I am retired, right?  Spent a very busy weekend and have some new projects to work on tomorrow so going for a little down time.  However, just had to share some FALL COLOR with you!
Also noted we have a couple new subscribers; welcome and hope you have the patience to track back through our Epic Adventure chapters. It may give you a feel for who we are and how come we have a website called The Homestead Store.   We also self-publish books as you can see at Brainstorms Publishing.

Adventure over with, right?  Yes and no!  The memories and pictures of course live on but also the LONG list of questions as yet unanswered.  We will continue to research, to delve, to try to figure out where photos were taken [you know, those black and white ones and 8mm color film strips and the like that our folks left us!] and to dig deeper in our memories.
After all, we’ve promised Book #3, with ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures, with some tracking all through the years on ownership etc.

And…recipes! We were asked about recipes, so with Mom’s hand written collection of recipes we will make sure to include some.  Dandelion
Wine anyone? I remember personally two things about that; we had to pick a LOT of dandelion flowers and it tasted terrible.  Of course most wines would have tasted terrible to a kid!

May 14^th, Tuesday  Got everything packed up and ready, as we’ve a 5 PM ferry to catch.  We’ve each got an extra bag that was packed in our main bag because we knew we would gather treasurers to take home, including rocks!  With the cabin tidy and ready, we headed out on one last visit.

Bear Den at Salmon Run Campground

We’d heard John Schnabel should have gotten back to town sometime Monday, that Marge Ward might or might not be in town, and that Mr. Henderson should be home.  We’ll return the extra mattress pads the Salvation Army so kindly loaned us, before we found out that Tracy and Chuck HAVE extras! Then we’ll get a quick breakfast and call folks one last time.

http://www.salmonrunadventures.com/

As we leave the campground we are all agreeing that it would have been nice to see a bear, and we’ve seen NONE. Ruth turns up the road for a last look at the Chilkoot side and there is a bear between the road and bay!

We all take pictures, it is rolling rocks and

Grizzly, only bear we saw!

scooping up hooligan that were caught in the tide changes.

Eagle

While we get breakfast at Mountain Market, we make calls again and connect with Carol Waldo for lunch later at Chilkat Bakery.  We swing by Senior Living after the Salvation Army store, and they say yes John is back from his trip but not there right then.

Linda, Erma Schnabel & Denise

Ray Menaker, Linda & Denise

Ray Menaker and Erma Schnabel are in the lounge and we chat with them a few minutes before leaving.

Denise, Mr. Henderson, Linda

Stopping up at Mr. Henderson’s,

he IS home and we have a nice visit there.  A call earlier to Alaska Roadbuilders, owned by Roger Schnabel, still does not get ahold of John but we are leaving our number for him.  We swing out past the airport anyway to check; he is not there.

As we talk [who, us?] about how we are making last minute connections etc, we comment that now if we only had seen a moose.  Right there at the south end of the airport, two moose in a field.  Cow and a yearling.  They put on quite a show for the tourists!

Moose!

Just before that sighting, we’d gotten Marge Ward on the phone and directions to her house so off we went, only a little delayed by the moose sighting.  Finally found her, we had missed a turn, and had a great visit there.

Ruth, Linda, Marge Ward, Denise & Nancy

Everyone had said John was bound to be back at the Senior Living in time for lunch at noon, and as we were climbing Marge’s stairs he called to say yes he was there and would not leave before we made it back there.   Called Carol to say we’d be a bit late for lunch, and she said no problem.

Nancy, Ruth, Linda, John Schnabel, Denise

Back to Senior Living and a good visit with John, who did remember us and had a couple stories to tell about our Dad working for him.  Got pictures with everyone and then off to lunch.  Good visit with Carol, and then goodbye to Haines because we must get back and load up for the ferry.

Tracy was there to drive us down, and reclaim her vehicle!  Jan met us at the ferry terminal and we all visited until time to give hugs, say goodbye and get on board.

Malaspina

The rain was only a short way down Lynn Canal, so after one more look at Haines and Port Chilkoot, a rainy wave at Davidson Glacier barely visible through the clouds and fog, and the same for Eldred Rock, we were done.  Had a nice dinner in the cafeteria and played cards at the table there as it rained outside.

Alaska State Seal, on the ferry

Getting dark as we pulled in to Auk Bay, and we were pleased to see the shuttle for Super 8 pull up just after we got our bags from the cart.  After 10 before we were in the motel, and we were glad for our beds [real ones!]  They found us extra pillows too.

May 15^th, Wednesday  Hot showers in the morning, complimentary breakfast just three doors down on our floor, repack just a bit and we are good for the day.  Girls had time to go wander in the shopping center not too far away, and I read in the lobby waiting for a friend who lives in Juneau.  She was unable to come over, as it turned out, but was nice to just read quietly and nothing else!

Girls got back and we shuttled to the airport and checked our bags in for our 1:20 flight to Seattle.  Very low key small airport so we now had time to order lunch and have a drink because we are not driving!

Believe it or not, at this point we are STILL in the ‘can’t believe it happened’ mode.

In Seattle, we part company…only not as soon as we thought!  First we find our flights, though a good three hours apart, are scheduled to leave from the same Gate.  Plus the Boise flight is delayed.  A deck of cards, and something to drink (juice this time) and we entertain ourselves at a convenient table for quite a while.  Boise flight keeps getting more delays but eventually they leave and we find seating closer to the gate.  Our flight ended up delayed a half hour as well, putting us in Medford about 12:30….which means we were not home until Thursday morning!

Pretty sure there are some funny things that have been left out, but then you know “What happens in Haines, stays in Haines…”

It was an Epic Adventure and we loved every minute of it.
~~~~~~~
If you are interested in the books, Children of Glacier Point book 1 and book 2, visit Brainstorms Publishing.  These are true accounts of our parents homesteading, starting in the late 1940’s.

May 13^th, Monday  Started the day tidying up a bit because we know that Tuesday we’ll need to pack for our trip home.  Ruth is going to see about having the carving she bought mailed as it won’t fit well in her bag.

Once we were ready for town, called Tommy and he said he’d meet us at the Bakery.

Jeff David, Linda, Tommy Bieleski

Good thing we chose a large round table when we went in because he was soon there and a lady at another table came over after talking with him.  Sandra Fenn Martin, ahead of me in school, but lots of friends in common!  She went home to find someones address and was back soon.  Tommy called David Land to come down, and ran home to get his yearbook.  Jeff David came in, and then Louie Meacock…the table kept filling up.

Jeff, Denise, Tommy, David Land

When we were done with breakfast, Linda and I stayed visiting while Nancy and Ruth went to the post office.  They also got some cardboard somewhere to help stabilize our prints etc for the return trip.

When we were at the laundry, there was a neat poster on the wall, a drawing of Haines, Port Chilkoot and the harbor, with a sign saying the owner had more for $5 each.  The girls checked more than once to find someone in residence who could sell them to us.  Never made a connection.

Finally our ‘breakfast party’ broke up, but each of us had gotten more information on friends and classmates.  When Nancy and Ruth returned for us, they had been told the newspaper was looking for us so we headed over there and yes they were!  Had an interview with the editor as his writer was out in the field.  Stopped in the Babbling Book bookstore (same building) and another gift shop before going on the check out Chilkat Valley Arts.

Also went to check on Mary Manuel again, and she was home and feeling much better.  Nice visit with her, and her company that showed up, Rose Brouillette!

Denise, Linda, Mary Manuel, Ruth, Nancy

Went to the Bear Den for lunch, because we hadn’t been there yet!

That would be their sign!

Original Fresnel lens from Eldred Rock

A bit more exploring, which included the Museum and its store, and then to the library for a 6:30 class get together Nellie had invited us to.  Monday was the start of her class, and this was a required attendance for class members, with the public welcome.  We thought we were going to hear stories of the Tlingits.  You know, just listening quietly in the background?  Hmmmm.

First hint was reading the poster, it is about communications which of course oral history does come under but the wording was not precisely that.  Then the chairs all need to be in a circle.  Then everyone is to introduce themselves and their connection etc.  Hmmmm.

Oh, forgot to say, met Pat Philpott again, Nellie’s little brother. He was just a little kid last time!

So there we are in a circle, with folks introducing themselves and giving their Tlingit names and moieties in addition to other names and why they are there.  Okay, we are ‘The Children of Glacier Point’ honorary Ravens through Jack David and just visiting.

We were the first ones they wanted to talk to because Glacier Point had come up in discussion earlier during class time.  It may have historical evidence as a place the Tlingits spent time berry picking due to the prevalence of high bush cranberries, blueberries and strawberries in the past.  Assured them that if our parents had ever seen signs of prior occupancy [pre homesteaders] that they would have shared that with Jack and others from Klukwan.  Which does not mean there wasn’t such activity, just that our folks never saw any. Now of course we are interested in that possibility, and told them if they ever do a dig down there, we want to know!

Hadn’t had dinner yet, so off to the Bamboo Room, and were almost too late to eat, they close early.  Couldn’t have the seafood but got filled anyway, and off home.