Of all the pictures I’ve located of me during my childhood, there are perhaps none so comforting as these – at least to me. It is unlikey that anyone – including my parents – can quite understand what they represent. But for a two-year old, I’m sure there is nothing quite so comforting, nothing so safe, as your own home in the company of your parents.
We had been in the new house on Echo Hill for four or five months when my third Christmas rolled around. Our decorations included a new ‘used’ tree that my parents bought in an auction (along with some holiday ornaments and what would today amount to hundreds of dollars worth of vintage View Master slides) for the tidy sum of one dollar. The tree would remain with us for close to twenty Christmas celebrations. Heaven only knows where the aluminum tree ended up!
And as Mom decorated the house, Dad snapped photos of our new surroundings. He had a habit of doing that – for which I am now eternally grateful. Some of them are a little dark, but they represent the ‘fireside’ mood of a family basking in the glow of happiness.
Kicking back in my rocking chair from my first birthday
Mom and I enjoy the fire
The fire with the Christmas tree reflected in the mirror above the hearth
Lounging fireside with Dad
Nice view of the room as I eyeball the Nativity set
Opposite view of the room as I get into the Nativity set
Playing with the Nativity set would become a tradition for the next three or four years
On a different day not long before Christmas, Mom and I hang out in our family room
Mom is looking pretty in her festive mood
It is odd angles like this for which I am thankful. My brain would never have been able to conjure up this view of our kitchen with refrigerator, stove, and washer and dryer. I’m certain that it is only this photo that helped jog my memory.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas 1973
What could possibly seem more comforting than your memories of home…at Christmas…with your family…by a warm fire…in the early 1970’s…when it seemed that all was right with the world and nothing could ever harm you?
Up next: the Christmas holiday itself
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