My Family: Chapter 41

You can imagine what sparse Christmases we had at my house, but the one which stands out is the one where I’m thirteen; I didn’t get any gifts that year.  Shirley was sixteen and she wanted a record player. Lucille was eleven and she wanted a set of telephone's which had a wire connected to them. You could go into another room and talk over them just like walkies talkies. Sonny  wanted a BB gun and I wanted a doll. Dad and Mom went in to Logan that year. They told Shirley to watch us and if we were good; they would bring us back something. I begged Mom to please bring me back a doll, I wanted nothing else. She said I was too old dolls but she would think about getting me one. I prayed all that day, December 24,1954. “Please God, let them bring me back a doll.”

When they returned, they gave Shirley a record player with a couple of records, they gave Sonny a BB gun, Ronnie got some toy cars and a red wagon, and Bonnie was given some baby toys.  Lucille and I are still waiting for our gifts.  There was a bath house connected to our house and Mom told Lucille to go out there and bring in this big box. She told Lucille everything in the box was for her - in the box is a doll, the toy telephone, a set of dishes, and a lot more that I don't remember now. It’s the only Christmas my sister, Lucille, remembers because she got a lot of toys. After awhile, I realized they got me nothing! I felt hurt and I screamed and cried as I watched as the rest played with their toys. Lucille and I talked about that Christmas after we grew up and had families of our own; we couldn't understand how our parents could forget me. I know they did truly forget me because when Mom realized they didn’t have a gift for me, you could see she felt sorry and bad about it. She said I was too big for a doll anyway, and it was too late to go to the store and get me something. Besides they didn’t have any money left, they spent it all on whiskey. She said I could share Shirley’s record player.  Yeah, right. Here’s a girl who wouldn’t let me touch anything that belong to her and she’s going to share - I don’t think so! 

The next morning, I went to see what my friends got for Christmas. Two of my friends got Christmas stockings with fruit and candy, and my second cousin got a Shirley Temple doll which her mother (my first cousin who is the same age as my parents) never let her play with it. I would go to her house when her parents were not home and we would go open the clothes press and take the doll out to look at it then we would put it back. I asked my cousin what happen to the doll years after we grew up and she said that she didn't know.

Mom, Grandma Hattie, Aunt Alice, Aunt Tince

Later, our next door neighbor went to Logan and brought me back a doll. I hung the doll on Grandma’s wall and forgot about it. By the time I thought about the doll it was gone.