by Robert Amedee L’Ecuyer

Childhood Christmas Memories

 One year, when we were living in Cambridge Massachusetts, Christmas arrived with my Aunt Jackie and her then-boyfriend, Olaf Bredeson. Oli was finishing his doctorate in chemistry at MIT at the same time my dad was at Harvard. 

Oli and Jackie met as students at University of Montana, where Aunt Pinky was teaching. They weren’t married that Christmas, but they got married later that year in our living room in Cambridge.  

Christmas morning came and there was a huge package for me under the Christmas tree. It was a big deal. When I opened my present, it was a metal case with an erector set, the fanciest one available. In retrospect, I can’t imagine how they could afford to buy it. Dad must have borrowed the money from Dandu. 

We opened it and they explained how it worked, then my Dad and Oli took over. I had to wait to play with it until they were done!  

Various equipment could be run with the little electric motor that was included. It had an instruction book with good ideas for things to build, like a pulley system you could use to hoist things up on a tower or make a drawbridge. There were metal strips, nuts and bolts, and washers – a lot of things to do. I played with it constantly. Decades later,  it was still in the attic at Micky’s house in Lawrence Kansas.  

That was the most memorable for me, but later Christmas became more about how I could find exciting presents for my sisters. I was four and a half years older than Sally and I had the responsibility for watching out for her. 

Then Mary came along who was like my baby at twelve and a half years younger. When Mary was an infant, I was changing her diapers and doing the laundry. Sally was mobile and quick. I had to keep her from running down the street.

It was more important to me to figure out how to do something special for them. First it was dolls, every year fancier ones, then clothing for the dolls. They got presents from Dad too, but his temptation was to buy them fancy dresses. I mostly got them toys. 

One year, Sally got a baby buggy and a bed for her dolls, later a model house with furniture to go inside it. With Mary, it started with a ball and then jump ropes, and all kinds of other toys.  

The tree was a big deal too. In Cambridge, the tree was in the living room in the corner. In those days, the set of lights was a series. When one bulb burns out the whole thing shuts down. It was my task to find the bulb that burnt out. 

Every year more ornaments arrived and they accumulated. The tree always seemed big, maybe six feet tall, same height as my dad. They had tree lots and my dad would go and pick it out and bring it home to put it in the holder with the pan and water.

Before TV, the big feature in the living room was a table model radio. We sat around, staring at the radio and listening to Jack Benny and Fred Allen, the news, and other story programs. The kids programs were late afternoon and Saturday mornings, like Let’s Pretend.  

Christmas was snowy in Cambridge and in London Ontario when we lived there. In Texas, I could be in a sweater without a coat and it seemed so much warmer. Always an adjustment between different places. Sometimes it was like springtime in Texas, but then it was winter again for Christmas when we moved back to New Jersey.  

As I said, Uncle Oli and Aunt Jackie were married in our living room in Cambridge. It wasn’t a big crowd but it was exciting to have the minister there. Oli went to work, so they moved to Wilmington Delaware and then cousin Ingrid was born. 

She was a year older than Mary. We spent weekends there when I was older. Oli eventually became a VP at Dupont, and when I did the family history later on I realized Jackie was almost five years older. That was unusual at the time.

Oli was of medium height with a fair complexion, of Swedish heritage. His dad had moved the family to Norway even before they came to the US. Having a Swedish uncle was unusual. 

His mother was from Missouri, though. Mrs Bredeson took care of Sally, Mary and me in New Jersey for a year. We got to know her pretty well. I would call her solemn.  

Later when my dad had good jobs, we had nice Christmases with nice presents. He always tried to make it special, and that carried on every year. 

Christmas for my own kids became a big deal. We weren’t flush as a young family, so we really focused on picking out things that were special to Jeanine, Larry, and Paul, and later Julie and Anne. 

Barbara made the holidays special by cooking wonderful Christmas dinners. I was always most interested in the turkey dressing, which was actually stuffed inside the turkey and cooked all day in those years.  

One Christmas, Micky and HK came out for the holiday. It was the year before he died and that was the last time I saw him. We went to Prescott and up to the canyon. As I look back I realize he was having trouble breathing, huffing and puffing as we walked.  

Micky came back to Arizona several more times for Christmas and other visits over the years. Visiting with family members, like Aunt Fern and Uncle Roy with RJ and Mary Katherine, they were part of our family in Arizona. Cousins in Kansas, California and Florida, and all of Barbara’s family – they were always in our hearts at the holidays.