The first Christmas I remember as the third child in a family of four I was sitting in the back seat of our car, between my older brother and older sister. I was so excited that year because it was the first opportunity that I was given to buy gifts for others! I don't remember how much money I had but I do remember that I was so excited that I could hardly sit still for the ride to town! We were headed to the T G & Y in Ponca City, our closest town.
Home was a 60 acre farm about 12 miles from town. There were horses, cattle, goats, chickens, pigs, a few dogs, a large garden, wood burning heat stove, black and white TV, no air conditioning, a bedroom I shared with my two sisters, ponds and a creek for fishing in, a wheat field, barns with hay (alfalfa and prairie), a tack house for the saddles and bridles and a long dirt road for the one way drive that brought you a mile back off of the blacktop road over two cattle guards to our house. Oh! and my father had to haul water from town because the plumbing was fed by a cistern that was up on a hill and the only way to have running water was for it to be hauled in, then let gravity pull it to the house.
It sounds like a very backwoods home now, but at the time it just seemed like home. I really enjoyed it there, I had a Shetland horse that was mine for me to ride. I loved horses and the outdoors,
unfortunately, my closest sibling was my younger sister and she didn't share my love of horses... or the outdoors, and my older brother and sister were quite a bit older than me, which left me to hang out with my horse~ did I tell you that her name was Tinkerbell? I guess I belonged outdoors more than in the house, because one of the things I remember hearing my mother tell me the most was "go outside and play!". So I often was outside, a great deal of the time with my dad, either hauling hay, cutting firewood, building fences, working cattle, or riding horses.
How did I get so sidetracked? This is about Christmas! Anyways, we were in the car, my parents in the front seat, with my younger sister in between them and me in the middle in the back seat. We went to TG & Y and I experienced the joy of choosing gifts for the first time! I bought my father some handkerchiefs (men used to carry them all of the time), and I remember buying a little plastic coin purse for someone, but I'm not sure who received it. Fun to remember the excitement though!
I believe it was that same year that my brother had a job, or at least his own money and was able to fund his gifts for everyone. He gave me a beautiful, red Tonka pickup truck! I loved that truck, partially because I was amazed he spent his money on me and partially just because it was so COOL! It wasn't too "girlie", but remember I was the outdoorsy "tom girl" that hung out with horses~
....so the excitement of buying gifts and that red Tonka truck are my first cherished memories of Christmas~
~Lorna Mercer
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