The Green Hornet

After I taught Ray to drive he wanted a car of his own. He brought one from a friend that was green and old. He named it "The Green Hornet". It was very old but still driveable. However it was always having troublr and when he brought me home on a date we made a little noise. My father would hear it and tell him to bring it to the shop. My dad would go to the junk yard and get another part for it. When the war ended Ray was working but I drove down Kansas Avebue honking the horn with everyone else. I had his mother and his Aunt Helen in the back seat. When we got married his parents were driving the car to see us off on our honeymoon and the car gave up at the edge of the airfield so they did not make it to wave at us. I don't think it was fixable noe and we went to driving my 1932 Chevy until we bought the electric car.

Electric cars

When Ray and I were first married our 1932 car gave up the ship and we were in the market for a new car. They had an ad in the paper about a new car costling $950. We thought we would try it. It was very small and we had to recharge it everynight. Ray drove it to work at The Topeka Daily Capital and the printers liked to pick it up and hide it from him. Once they put it in the lobby of the Orpheum Theater which was in the same block as the "Capital". My mother was afraid we would hit a dog and have a wreck. Riding in was like riding inside my mother's sewing machine. At the end of a month we advertised it and sold it for just what we had paid for it to my mother's relieve and brought another car. I cannot remember what kind. It was an interesting month.

To Keep me Humble

My husband Ray was great in taking me along places with him so I got to see many great people from presidents on down and I guess I bragged about it. So I think it was my mother but it could have been someone else. I was sent something to put on my refrigerator. It said "It is nice to be important but it is more important to be nice", It has brought me back to earth many times when I got carried away for I don't think I have really done anything important for many years but I'm working on it and may do something "important" when I get older if I could just think of something. Maybe I should ask my older sister, Helen, as she has always been smarter than I am.

New Year's Day

When our children were small they thought it would be nice to stay up until midnight and greet the New Year but always fell asleep before midnight so we told them you could also do it at noon the next day. Then the next day we had poppers ready and horns and firecrackers and started the New Years. Than we had ham for lunch. As they became older they stayed up to midnight and celebrated but still did lunch and they are doing it again this year because I can't stay awake until midnight. It makes it seem like a fun holiday and does not interfere with their plans to be wild on the real New Year's Eve. I hope some of my grandchildren and children will turn up and help me celebrate this year.

We have a huge Santa Claus we put up at Christmas that Ray brought back from the Orange Bowl the year KU played and put 12 men on the field and lost. This Santa Claus hung in the Hotel Lobby where the Kansas Press was staying and Ray decided to bring it home. It was very stormy on the fligtht home and the plane landed in Kansas City and they came back to Topeka by train. Steve was only two so put him in the car and we went down to meet Ray's train. Governor Carlson saw us waiting for the train and told me they would have brought Ray home. Steve was enjoying it so it would have been a shame if we had not gone. Every year we hang it up at Christmas.

Under the kitchen sink

In cold weather I have to leave the doors under my kitchen sink open so the pipes will not freeze. I see I have my electri frying pan, cookie sheets, two hamers, an assortment of vases and small bottles that use to have something in them but as years went by I saved them and put koolaid in them. There is a long handled fork and a long handled pancake turner, bait to catch mice that they go home and die. It is back far so my dog, Buster does not care to taste it or the mice it might kill. I have an assortment of thngs to wash windows, clean the sink and anything else I cannot figure where to put. Some of the vases have things written on them. Maybe later I will find out and write another chapter.

Christmas socks

I used to love to knit Christmas socks. I received a card from my daughter Susan with Christmas socks in a neat row. She is a great knitter. My daughter Sally had socks on her blog yesterday. One of the fast ones I knitted was for my first granddaughter as I think I knitted on the plane ride to Washington when she was born. I have had them on the cover of a magazine and they gave me a lot of pleasure to knit. I have cards on everyone and I have knitted almost 2000. I do not knit well now so have retired from knitting. During the last war my sister, Helen, and I knitted scarfs for the army. After the war I tried knitting other things. We had a fair in Topeka and I went to the knitting showcase and looked to see what had the fewest entries and then by the next year I knitted something, I think it was men's gloves, and won a blue ribbon and five dollars. My sister Ethel gave me a pattern for the socks and I was off on my new hobby. I wish I could still do it.

Cookbook

They use to have a group of people that did a cookbook called "Celebrity Cookbook and it would have recipes from famous people. Ray was honored one year and asked to submit a recipe. He chose one of my mother's called "Bavarian", I cannot remember what charity got the results of the sale but think it was children. One of the women newscasters of WDAF was the editor. Ray was very honored. I still have the cookbook but at the moment cannot find it.

Christmas Santa's

My daughter Sally has painted Santas. He is always friendly but sometimes he is in red and sometimes in green. He is how Santa has changed over the years but he is always friendly looking. I tried to knit one and a snowman and put them over Styrofoam but mine are not has good. Santa never takes anything away from Baby Jesus, he only shows love. He never scowls. Santa shows children how to get gifts they want but they grow up with the idea of giving not just receiving, which is sort what Christmas is about. It is nice to gaze at the Santas and remember past Christmases.

Christmas trees

In the time I was growing up everyone did not have Christmas trees and fancy wrapped packages. My mother used plain brown sacks and they were laid on any chair you were assigned. My chair was my desk chair, My sister Helen had a child's rocking chair, You generally got essentials like underwear and socks and a doll. Our church had a Christmas performance and a rich family gave trees to decorate the church and you could have one. We would take it home and decorate it. It stood in the middle of the front room under the chandelier so we could plug in lights. The lights did not last long and when one burned out the string went out, My job was the lights. The day after Christmas my mother took it down, I leave them up until New Years Day. One year we had two blue trees left over from my sister Ethel's Sorority dance. When my brother had a girl friend he later married she wrapped gifts in blue tissue paper that were beautiful. You hated to open them. They were so pretty. We generally got a new doll and underwear. Once I got a new bike. I think Helen got to ride Ethel's. It wore out by the time I could ride. At school I think we drew names and you had to buy something under twenty five cents which meant the dime store. New dresses were only at Easter and I was 12 before I got one that was not worn by older sisters. I use to like one they had and hoped it did not wear out before I got it but at 12 I had a new one at Easter that cost $1.98 at J C Penny's. We always had our own shoes you did not inherit them. I use to hope that certain dresses would not wear out. I loved Christmas. We exchanged gifts with cousins and one aunt always made us pajamas if she got our name. The same aunt also got books from the state library since her husband was attorney general of Kansas. She did not like to waste money at Christmas unless for her three sons. I loved Christmas as I still do.

Tinsel

We use to put lots of tinsel on the Christmas tree when we had a natural tree but we do not on the artificial tree as you have to take it off and with the natural tree we could just leave it on the tree and throw it out. Our daughter Sally loved to put on tinsel and one occasion she was standing on the kitchen step stool to get closer to the top and stepped back to admire her work which was a big mistake and she fell. She was not hurt and never did again. She waited until she was on the ground to do her admiring of her work.

Two Santa Suits

My husband Ray loved to be Santa. When we were first married the war was just ending and they were still trying to help people. We still had stamps for everything like meat and gas and letters. Across the street from my mother's house in the Junior High, they had a free sewing class. It was taught by a friend's mother. I enrolled and first I made a coat for my son Steve and then I tried a Santa suit. Ray loved it but tried never to wear it where our children were involved. One exception was our home's association had Santa go though our area in a convertible throwing candy to the children. As they grew up they never told him that they knew him. After we had grandchildren he attended a cookie party Cindy had and handed out small gifts to our grandchildren and their friends. It was sort of threadbare so I made him a second one. Which still exists as I think our son, Scott, has it in Lawrence

Another Christmas Eve

Our oldest son, Steve,wanted an electric train for Christmas one year. My husband Ray had a great idea to buy boards and hinges and put it out of the way at night. He painted the board and on Christmas Eve with his parents help we brought it up. I'm not sure how he did it as he would be sleeping but anyway we did and got it up with a pulley to bring it up which it immediately crashed on the floor. His father and I sighed in the front room and then helped him take the board to the basement and put it on the ping pong table. Steve liked it down there and later the board became boxes for our camping trip. I had a doll house to put together also but his mother was good at that. The kids loved Christmas and did not hear any of the swear words I think.

Another Christmas story

When our oldest daughter was in the sixth grade at school she had a great teacher. I think our second daughter Sally had her the next year. The depression was on and the teacher was teaching them how to make something inexpensive for Christmas. She had them bring wire hangers. They made them into a sort of bird cage and them put something in the center. They wired them so they stayed open. She put a ribbon on pine needles in the center and a ribbon on the bottom. I hung in the front room on the chandler. The chandler is not there now so we hang it on the heater/air conditioner when we can find it. Find the decoration not the air conditioner. We are looking.

Another Christmas Eve

When our oldest son, Steve was in the Cradle Row in our church in Topeka they gave him a plan for Christmas Eve at home. It required a few candles, a Bible and some reading. We used it all the while our children grew up. We set up a card table and found all the candles in the house. Then my husband, Ray, read what it said. We did not start to go to church on Christmas Eve until our granddaughter, Hayden, was baby Jesus in their program. We always had eggnog after the reading. It made for a pleasant Christmas Eve setting.After the children went to bed I climbed the ladder to the attic where their gifts were stored. I wrapped them in whatever color tissue paper they had chosen and put together anything that had to be assembled like doll houses and the such. My husband had four holidays a year off from the job at the KC Star and he always took Christmas Eve as one of them.

Fairy Princess

When my children were in school they passed a rule that Santa could not visit school so we turned to one of the pretty mothers and asked her to visit in a pretty dress all the rooms her children were not in, It was very successful but the school board frowned on it so that ended that. Another time with the official Fairy Princess we were in line when my granddaughter Morgan broke out with chicken box while we were in line. We figured the princess had had it already so we stayed in line.

Christmas Eve

The year (1981) that Hayden was born and George Torhmolen became Colonials' Minister was the first time we attended the Christmas Eve service at Colonial. Up until then we had a candlelighting Service at home. There we gathered all the candles in the house that we could find a holder for and followed a service Steven had gotten from his Sunday School teacher while we still lived in Topeka. After doing the service we drank eggnog and the kids went to bed. The year that Hayden was born in September they asked Sally and Howard if she could be Baby Jesus in the church pageant so we all went to church that year.

The pageant had already been held at least one year with adults. Joni Holcomb and Gail Heath had been in charge. Gail Heath said Dave Kenicott was Joseph and his red headed daughter was Mary. The kings were Frank Roberston, Russ Waesche and Bob Starcke. Jan Parkinson was a shepherd. One of the angels was Chris Ericson. Jan said that they all had to get their own costumes and he was a shepherd and found a bathrobe that had fur down the front that he used. Joni didn't like the costumes very well so she worked on it during the year and has kept an eye on it ever since. They used high school students in it for shepherds and angels and wisemen. The first year they had a king - Russ Waseche and he sang. We don't have a king anymore. We call them wisemen. They baby she was not sure of but thinks it was Sharon and Denny Horns son. Gail didn't have pictures of the baby as she said it cried and the mother took it back. Gail helped with it until 1985 when she moved. She had fond memories of it. They year Hayden was the baby they decided to just use high school students. George Torhmolen's comment that he had not realized Jesus was a girl. We enjoyed it so much we have always attended since. In that time Stacy, Hayden, Frances, and Morgan have been Mary, Frances was baby Jesus the year she was born. Jason, a stepson, was Joseph and a wiseman for a couple of years. They have all been narrators and angels and shepherds. Alex, another stepson, was involved but didn't want to do it so he did lighting, which is very important.

The year Morgan was Mary the angel standing beside her fainted and it scared the baby. If the baby cried it was given back to their parents and Mary held a doll. Last year there was a mix up on getting the baby to Mary and Hayden could not stand that so she went and got the baby and put it in Mary's lap. This baby was older tan some and was wearing tennis shoes. They baby should be born in October so who will be this year?

Mary and Joseph are always high school seniors. The middle school students are the shepherds and sometimes an angel. The wisemen are generally boys and high school but they have used tall girls. The narrators are sometimes college students home for Christmas. Holly has been an angel and a shepherd.

There are two other services on Christmas Eve. I've only been to the eleven o'clock one as Ray agreed we would usher. It is all music. I'm not sure what the eight o'clock one has. At first the family had dinner at one of our houses but they have been stopped for quite a while, as they were too busy on Christmas Eve. If we had it at Huggin's house we used the candlelighting service we had used when they were small.

In 2008 my granddaughter Holly was an angel with a speaking part. We had to use a doll for Jesus as the baby who was waiting on the front row parents changed their minds. I liked the doll.

I think it might have been 2002 Hayden was Mary again. Our minister wanted an outside Nativity scene separate from the one inside. Someone loaned us real sheep and we had them in a pen outside the church on the lawn. The week before Christmas Eve we put on an hourly nativity scene, I volunteered as a Wiseman. The rest of the family were in on it. I had trouble being a Wiseman because I thought they came from the east and who wrote the play had us come from the west. Hayden was Mary. We put it on about three times every night in the week before Christmas.

Sheep and Christmas

One Christmas our church had some real sheep on the lawn in front of the church so some of us volunteered to be shepherds and wisemen four times an evening. I was a wiseman. My daughters were also characters. Hayden was Mary. I know Stacy was something. Somebody were shepherds. I think we were assigned eight p.m. It lasted about 15 minutes. It was cold but fun. I do not know who thought it up and where the sheep came from but it was different.

Christmas Memory

One of my fondest memory is of 1960 one of the last Christmases with a strong downtown Kansas City now they are in malls. The streets were decorated with festive lighted garlands and the stores stayed open until nine. Ray and I took our five children, Steve, Susan, Sally, Cindy and Scott dressed in their best Sunday outfits to see the sights. We had supper at the Forum cafeteria on Main Street so each could find something they liked and we could get a full meal as parents Then we started the walking tour, stopping first at the Jones Store on the corner of 12th and Main, where there was a Santa wonderland with a train carrying children and adults alike thru snowmen, frolicking elves, reindeer and other sites. Then it was on to Klines to see the fairy princess, a beautiful young woman dressed in a gorgeous princess gown and crown with a magic wand. For a small fee each the children could line up in front of her thrown, sit on her knee and tell her what they wanted for Christmas. At the end she would wave her wand
and a brightly covered gift would appear beside her throne as if by sorcery. It would contain a coloring book, a tin whistle, a spinning top or some trinket. From there we went we made our way thru the crowded streets to Emery Bird Thayer the department store on Walnut Street, Eleventh and Grand. There two giant inflated figures of Santa and Mrs. Claus shook and rolled like a bowl of jelly with recorded laughter. A smaller Santa was handing out trinkets. Then down to Harzfields to see the animated figures. A woman stepped to us and wished us a "Merry Christmas" and handed us a box of Russell Stover Candy. The kids wanted the candy right away but we wanted to check out first. Fortunately for newer generations, Hallmark brought the inflated Santa and put Santa on display. The Fairy princess went to the KC Museum for a couple of weeks in December.

Christmas gifts

When my children were small they like to buy Christmas gifts for their brothers and sisters. Ray and I would take them to the dime store on Shawnee Mission Road and giving them each a dollar would take them in the store one at a time, Since we were with them they did not duplicate their gifts. When they got home with their five gifts I gave them wrapping paper and they wrapped them. I don't think they ever told but it was hard for some of them who wanted to tell. On Christmas morning they had such fun opening them. Their gifts we bought from either Sears or Wards which had catalogs. We told their grandparents what they wanted so we would duplicate the grandparents told us what they had for them. We had trouble two Christmas with our order. The one at Sears left off our first letter of our name and made it Organ, One of the clerks figured it out, The other order was at Wards and did not come in. Ray was covering a story with the President of Wards and told him our problem. That night a truck pulled up. They rang the bell and delivered our order. The new Christmas dresses we had ordered for the girls had been packed down too long and we could never get the wrinkles out of their lovely Christmas dresses but everything else was fine and we still had one day before Christmas. Nerve wracking but successful.