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It was the winter of 1936-1937. The location was the farm near Hesper, Mt. where the Ole Geezer (when he was a young squirt named Jimmy) lived with his family. He was almost four years old. His little brother, Gerald, had not yet been born.

On the first floor of the old two story farm house was one bedroom, the living room and a large kitchen with a walk in pantry. Upstairs there were three more bedrooms. The only heat in this old house was from the wood/coal cook stove in the kitchen and a wood/coal heater in the living room. Because the upstairs really had no heat, it was closed off in the winter.

Jimmy’s Daddy had no hired help on the farm this winter, so Mama and Daddy slept in the downstairs bedroom and Jimmy slept in a little cot behind the heater in the living room.

One record breaking cold, miserable night that winter, a voluminous amount of snow fell and the wind blew so hard that the next morning Daddy had to climb out one of the second story windows onto a snow bank to exit the house so he could tend to the livestock. The snow had been drifted around the house by the wind and completely blocked the outside doors of the house. It was such a cold winter that all the cows, horses and sometimes the dogs had to be kept in the barn day and night for several days at a time so they wouldn’t freeze to death. The dogs (work dogs, not pets), did not cater to bein’ inside a house, and usually slept under the back porch, except during these extremely cold and windy times. The hogs had shed type shelter with several bails of straw that Daddy had provided for them to keep somewhat warm. The chickens of course had their chicken coop for housing. Fortunately this was a winter the family did not have sheep, turkeys, geese, ducks or any other income type critters on the farm. There were several cats, (also not pets) who earned their board and room by keeping the rodent pests under control. The cats lived in the barn year round.

It took Daddy all day to hand dig a tunnel through the snow to open the entrance to the house. It was so cold that none of the gas driven equipment (car, truck or tractor) could be started. To get a vehicle started, so that cream and eggs could be taken to town to be sold, Daddy hitched a team of horses to the old Dodge car and with Mama at the steering wheel, they drove around and around the straw stack ,where the snow wasn’t so deep, trying to get the old car started. After many, many trips around that straw stack the old Dodge finally chugged to life. Daddy was NOT a swearing man, but I think he was tempted that day.

The old farm house did not have electricity or indoor plumbing. The toilet was an out house (with Sears Roebuck catalogs for toilet paper). BRRRRRR and OUCH ,OUCH. But despite the miserable winter conditions, Daddy and Mama were determined to make this a good Christmas for Jimmy. Even though there was no electricity, Daddy decided to have lights on the Christmas tree that he had purchased during the cream and egg delivery trip to town. He rigged up an old car battery as an energy source for the new lights on the Christmas tree. Mama and Daddy decorated
the tree on Christmas Eve day but told Jimmy that Santa would turn the lights on when he came that night. That gave Jimmy an idea.

Jimmy had been to church and he knew about this being Jesus’ birthday. He also knew that Jesus had been born in a manger in a stable.. It was hard for Jimmy to believe that a baby could survive in a barn at this time of year. He’d been told that Jesus’ birth so many years ago happened in another country and that the weather was not as cold there as it was here on the farm, but it was still confusing. Also what part did Santa Clause play in this whole situation? Well….maybe he’d just have to find out for himself. Since Santa was going to turn on the Christmas tree lights and the Christmas tree was in the same room Jimmy slept in, he’d just stay awake until Santa showed up. THEN he would talk to Santa and get all these confusing questions cleared up.

Well, on Christmas Eve, Jimmy stayed awake a long, long time and Santa still hadn’t showed up. Jimmy blinked his eyes one more time and didn’t open them this time ’cause he’d fallen asleep; but when he finally DID open them, the Christmas tree lights were on, there were some presents and candy and nuts under the tree and……….dog-gone-it……..Santa had been there and left……Even part of the cookie and milk Jimmy had set out for Santa were gone…….Huh….How did he get in and out without Jimmy seeing or hearing him??? Well…………… Jimmy was too excited to worry about it now……’Cause, for one thing, he spied a white with black spots rocking horse under the tree….

Years went by before Jimmy finally found out that Jesus was all about love and was born, died and came back to life to give him and all men, women, boys and girls the opportunity to have life everlasting just for the asking. He also discovered that while it was nice to have Santa come when you were little, JESUS was what Christmas was REALLY all about. If Jesus hadn’t been born, we wouldn’t be celebrating Christmas.

Do you know all about Jesus? Has he done anything special in your life lately? Tell me about it, HE sure has for me.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Papa (Jim Diede)