Saturday, December 22, 2007
Another Christmas photo
I just posted some photos from Christmas 1971 on my personal blog, and then found this one in my "cousins" file. How on earth did we all fit in Grandma's tiny living room?
Friday, December 14, 2007
Vintage Christmas, Adams' Style, 1963
I have a few Christmas photos that I haven't posted. I'd love to hear from you guys about having Christmas at Grandma's and Grandpa's house. We were crowded and loud and chaotic, but those are some of my favorite things about having a house full of family. :o)
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Christmas in Kansas
When I was about 10 we moved to a farm between Reynolds, Ne and Mahaska, KS. Dad had gotten a job working for a farm cooperative and they furnished us with a house and farmstead to care for and live on. Now this was the most modern house we had ever lived in. It had electric heaters along the walls, a full basement with shower and storm cellar, plenty of bedrooms, wall ovens in the kitchen and best of all the owners butchered in the fall and we had a full freezer of meat to get thru the winter. It was our best and most comfortable home. We even had a concrete walkway under the clothesline so I didn't have to hang out the laundry walking in mud. We loved that farm it was the best even tho we had rattlesnakes and other poisonos critters around. We had a horse, some dogs and lots of space to play in and explore. To us it was a dream.
Usually we traveled to York for Christmas and Thanksgiving but this particular year grandma and grandad and some of the aunts and uncles came to us. One of the things we did on our farm was raise hogs. The result being that we had baby pigs being born all the time. Well this particular holiday it was warm but we had snow on the ground so us kids were either covered in mud and snow or running and skating in the basement like wild animals. Alcohol flowed freely, food was cooked in the fancy new ovens and a grand celebration was at hand. Then....Dad went out to check on his young sows, some of which were due to birth at any time. Yes of course that's what happened. Unfortunately the sow who was pigging was having her first litter and the babies were in crisis. Dad brought the babies to the house to see if they could be saved. Mom shifted into rescue mode and all adults were ordered to help. I will never forget the look on Aunt Linda's face when mom put a tiny baby pig in her hand and told her to blow in its mouth and rub its chest. Panic and disgust warred as she stood frozen holding that piglet. Then mom handed out some others and began doing what we called pig CPR. Mom was rubbing piglets in towels laying on the open oven door and blowing in the little mouths trying to save as many as she could. Grandma and grandad helped because they knew those babies were our income and having been farmers they understood the neccessity of saving the livestock. Finally some of the others started to help and most of the piglets survived. I think that holiday will always be remembered as the oddest that we ever had....all those city folks doing CPR on pigs. Liquor was liberally had by most adults as they cuddled baby pigs who had fallen asleep all nice and warm in their arms. Us kids we just went on playing, afterall disgusting things didn't faze us much, we were kids, give us fudge and we were happy.
Usually we traveled to York for Christmas and Thanksgiving but this particular year grandma and grandad and some of the aunts and uncles came to us. One of the things we did on our farm was raise hogs. The result being that we had baby pigs being born all the time. Well this particular holiday it was warm but we had snow on the ground so us kids were either covered in mud and snow or running and skating in the basement like wild animals. Alcohol flowed freely, food was cooked in the fancy new ovens and a grand celebration was at hand. Then....Dad went out to check on his young sows, some of which were due to birth at any time. Yes of course that's what happened. Unfortunately the sow who was pigging was having her first litter and the babies were in crisis. Dad brought the babies to the house to see if they could be saved. Mom shifted into rescue mode and all adults were ordered to help. I will never forget the look on Aunt Linda's face when mom put a tiny baby pig in her hand and told her to blow in its mouth and rub its chest. Panic and disgust warred as she stood frozen holding that piglet. Then mom handed out some others and began doing what we called pig CPR. Mom was rubbing piglets in towels laying on the open oven door and blowing in the little mouths trying to save as many as she could. Grandma and grandad helped because they knew those babies were our income and having been farmers they understood the neccessity of saving the livestock. Finally some of the others started to help and most of the piglets survived. I think that holiday will always be remembered as the oddest that we ever had....all those city folks doing CPR on pigs. Liquor was liberally had by most adults as they cuddled baby pigs who had fallen asleep all nice and warm in their arms. Us kids we just went on playing, afterall disgusting things didn't faze us much, we were kids, give us fudge and we were happy.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
100th post and BIRTHDAYS!
This is the 100th post on our Cousin Connections blog - only fitting that it be celebratory. Before we celebrate, I will apologize again. I haven't been keeping up here, and there are several birthdays to acknowledge. Clear back to the end of October. Sigh. I am sorry I'm so behind. Now, on to the BIRTHDAY WISHES!
Jay's birthday was October 25th:
Danny's birthday was November 3rd:
Lisa's birthday was November 8th:
DeeDee's birthday was November 29 (sorry, I don't have a photo!):
Brian's birthday was yesterday, November 30:
And this one is right on time - Kathy's birthday is TODAY!
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