After Daddy and Mama (Bud and Ruby Lett) married in 1942 and got through World War II they took on many of the country customs and timeless traditions of their families. They settled on the Lett farm in Buckhorn community in Lee County and continued to keep Christmas focused on religion rather than presents. As my brother Jimmy, sister Carolyn and I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, Mama and Daddy gave us toys, but they didn’t indulge us. On Christmas morning we would awake to three piles of stuff strategically separated—some presents for Jimmy in one corner, others for Carolyn on the couch, and even goodies for the one and only “Sandy Lynn” in a chair. Jimmy always got a toy suitable for boys like a red wagon or a bicycle, and one year a BB gun for taunting the birds, my beloved cats and every living creature. Carolyn and I relished our just-for-girls gifts like a doll or nurses’ kit. One special treat was a baby doll that drank water from a tiny bottle and then wet in her diapers. Mama’s PMS kicked in when she had to clean up puddles of baby pee all over the house. When I visited Grandpa (Puzie Lett) at his country store across the road, he showed the doll to everybody who came to Lett’s Grocery and Filling Station that day. He would say over and over again, “It beats anything I’ve ever seen in my life.” My favorite treasures were paper dolls, and I played with the Lennon sisters—Diane, Peggy, Kathy and Janet—until I was a teenager and stopped only because their paper clothes wore out. When Aunt Gladys would tease me about liking a neighbor boy, she would say, “When James comes a courtin’ are you going to play paper dolls?” I liked the paper dolls because they became characters in my dramas, and I could spend hours making up stories about their “citified” lives—far beyond Buckhorn and our humble home. My last doll arrived when I was 14, and I still remember the painted face, the vibrant blue dress and fake mink coat. Somewhere along the way Mama gave it away to a poor little girl and also passed along my cherished dollhouse to a younger cousin. As Jimmy, Carolyn and I attended school and learned about what other kids were getting for Christmas our wish lists grew longer. The highlight of the holiday season for Carolyn and me was the day the Sears catalog arrived. We looked at it together, and she’d choose an item from one side of the fold, and I’d drool over something on the other page. Through the years, Christmas presents became more important as we allowed catalogs in the mail and trips to town to inspire us young’ns to ask for more “thangs.” Our desires didn’t influence Mama and Daddy one bit—they continued to focus on Christmas as being the birthday of Jesus Christ and noted that the baby Jesus was given special but simple gifts from the Wise Men. They reminded us often that if a manger was good enough for Jesus, a farmhouse and simple life was good enough for us. While participating in special services at church during the holidays, we collected canned goods and used clothes and toys to take to needy folks in the neighborhood. After the annual Christmas program, Santa Claus would drop by and hand out paper bags containing several fruits, a few nuts, a box of raisins and some hard candy. A group from the church also took these treats to shut-ins, sick folks and poor people to add some holiday cheer. |
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