EXCERPT FROM A TRIBUTE TO RUFUS AND ANNE HIBBETT. Christmas was the grand celebration and tradition at our house. We believed in Santa Clause. Some of my most exciting times as a child was the build up to Christmas. My older brothers had believed that Santa had a workshop in our basement. This is where Daddy would build some crude toys for Christmas presents and where he would restore and paint used bicycles to pass on to the younger brothers. My brothers told of how they would yell to Santa through the floor registers and he would reply assuring them he was preparing gifts and advising they keep being good little boys. Christmas eve meant going to bed early so as to not interfere with Santa coming and bringing gifts. There was no doubt in my mind each year that he had eaten the cookies and milk we set out for him. Before going to sleep some older brothers would come in to assure me all was going well. While still dark but no earlier than five am I was told I could go to the dark living room and bring my stuffed stocking back to bed. There I would excitedly pour out the contents of fruit, nuts, candy, rolls of caps, nearly always a small flashlight and sparklers and a roman candle sticking out the top. Christmas morning I was never disappointed when while just at daybreak I made my way to the decorated living room. The rooms floor was covered with presents and the Santa gifts were there unwrapped. I can recall a football uniform with helmet, an electric football game, new winter clothes, a small pool table, a cap pistol and holster, a tiny portable radio, a brand new red 24 inch bike. On my 16th birthday was a card on the tree saying that at the family store I would find a 12 foot feather-craft boat with a new 35 horsepower Evinrude motor. That wonderful gift was to become what was no less than an introduction to the world of the lake that was to be my teen salvation. Later Christmas morning my older brothers , now with children of their own , would arrive bringing more gifts and food for a Christmas dinner. Daddy, often dressed as Santa would hand out the wrapped gifts from beneath the tree and they would be opened as they were passed out. As the youngest son with now much older brothers I had a larger pile of gifts than anyone. I was very happy and full of wonder on Christmas. Of interest our church of Christ did not believe that Christmas should be celebrated in a religious way. There was nothing at church to remind one of the Christmas story. There was no observance of the Days of Advent leading up to Christmas Day. The only sign of the holiday was that the children received a clear plastic bag generously filled with fruit and candy the Sunday before Christmas. That was a gift I very much prized, sort of an early Christmas stocking. I figured they must be from Santa. I have mused that as wonderful as Christmas was and as exciting, we were among the first to make Christmas, except for Saint Nick, a totally secular experience. That is rather amazing to consider for a strong Christian family. FROM jhibbett.blogspot/2012/12/rufus-and-anne-hibbett-tribute-and.html
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 09:09:05 +0000
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