Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Time Travel Tuesdays~

Merry Christmas Vintage 60's Style!

This is the Little House on the Dairy at 2305 North Recker Road, Mesa, Arizona. No family was ever more snug or happy that we were on Christmas Eve 1967. Here is a little glimpse at "Christmas past" in the Ellsworth house.

 
First you will note that Mom did not have this roll of film developed right away! Glad I am not the only forgetful one in this family!

Next, notice the many, many games under the tree! That was an awesome year for games! My two favorites were Flea Circus where we got to get little magnetic fleas to do their trick like walking on a metal tight rope between two giant match sticks; then there was Hoopla which test our coordination, or lack thereof! It wasn't as large as it shows on the box! We had to rock the hoop back and forth and catch the little rings on a stick held by a clown that went around on a wheel on the hoop.


My eye then travels to the tree. It was Dad's favorite, a scotch pine cut down near Payson or Pine somewhere. He always put the tree in a bucket of dirt and kept it watered well. Mo would wrap an old white sheet around the bucket. Nothing fancy! Then there was duh DUH DUHN...the tinsel!! Oh! Such agonies went into putting tinsel on a tree! Mom would stand over us eager children and say repeatedly, "ONE at a time. ONE AT A TIME!" It had to look light and airy not thrown on in waded up clumps as we kids tended to do! I suspect she always fixed it after we had gone to bed!

I see my brand-new shiny Primary nativity scene on top of the old Philips TV (our very first COLOR TV set!).  I see the Santa face I made in the 3rd grade out of a coat hanger and an old nylon stocking stretched over it. I see an Tonka truck and a car carrier trailer that I am sure contained NO plastic parts! I see a talking doll and a very large gift box that held an Easy-bake Oven for little Gena.

Our next photo shows my two nephews, Edwin and Norman enjoying some of their gifts. Their father was serving in the Navy of the coast of Viet Nam I think, so Sharon and her children were with us for Christmas.
Oddly, the first thing I noticed was the set on Encyclopedias and the giant, red,  two volume Dictionary set behind the boys. That's what we had before computer hard drives and the internet, kids! Oh! Look at the roow of big light bulbs on top of the books! That was a light bar that you had to use with the old home movie cameras. That's why we all look like we are looking into the sun in those movies! We were!
Edwin is enjoying his toy machine gun, as any self-respecting boy in the 60's did. Norman is looking at the new View Master. They are both wearing new Tiger slippers because it is SO cold in Mesa in December! Was this the year that Norman got the stuffed Tiger with those slippers? He carried him everywhere and named him "Rags" because he got so dirty and worn. A few years later Sharon had to tell Norman that Rags was dead and needed a funeral, burial and all! He must have smelled bad! They buried him in the back yard at 255 N. Hill Street and you would have thought he rested in peace. Rags was resurrected many times in many disinterment ceremonies held by the children!

Ahh...Christmas fun! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas yourselves! Remember the reason we celebrate. That little babe in Bethlehem and His greatest gift of all!

4 comments:

Jalyn said...

Thank you so much for sharing
. I remember that house and the time we spent there. I love it.

URFAVE 5+A Few said...

That was such a wonderful post! I love your posts! Thanks for sharing all these great pictures and memories!

Love ya,
JoLynn

Anonymous said...

I think we had a TV just like that one but it wasn't a color TV for sure. Oh my gosh, the tinsel on the trees brought back such memories. Hanging the tinsel was my job (remember I am an only child). It would take me hours to hang each strand, one by one, carefully on each branch. I loved it! Thanks for the memory. Happy New Year to you ALL!!

Nancy Face said...

I loved reading this SO MUCH! The tree reminds me so much of the ones I remember as a child! I loved hanging the pretty tinsel, and when it was all done I'd squint at it and the tinsel would look like sparkly stars!

We had the same Nativity when I was growing up! My parents actually still have it, but it's very delicate and worn now, and they have no available surface to place it on.

I got an Easy Bake Oven when I was little! It was second hand because we were pretty poor, but that made no difference to me!

Your header is wonderful! :)