A Christmas Memory

 Linda was only ten years old in 1949 but remembers that her mother walked with her and her two older brothers to the downtown shopping area in White Plains, NY to do Christmas shopping. The walk was about a mile from her quiet residential neighborhood.  Her mother, although a second-generation Italian American, was for her time a modern woman, but she never learned to drive a car. In any case, in those days there was only one car in a family, and it was needed by her father who ran a high-end fruit and vegetable business in town. Christmas was his busiest time of year and there was no way he could help with Christmas shopping.

 

So the little entourage trooped downtown where Macy’s has just opened a store that would eventually turn sleepy White Plains into a suburban metropolis. Still, the downtown was filled with small specialty stores. Linda remembers that her mother made them wait outside while she shopped. She would go from store to store picking out presents that the kids would help her carry. Finally, loaded down, they would take the bus back home. It should be noted that Linda’s mother was well along in her fifth pregnancy at the time.

 

Linda does not remember what she got that Christmas but a couple of years later, she bought herself a very memorable present. It was a pair of six-shooters, fancy cap guns that she had long coveted. She had always loved to play cowboys and Indians with her childhood friends, Barbara and Eleanor, and here was her chance to acquire a fine set. She was a little embarrassed thinking she was too old for such things and told the proprietor they were a gift for her cousin.

 

She remembered this incident the other day while we inadvertently happened on a TV broadcast of women’s calf roping or Breakaway. In this event young women, dressed from head to toe in cowboy regalia, expertly guide their horses to chase down a fleeing calf and put a lasso around its head. The best of them manage to do it in two or three seconds.  It is a remarkable display of horsemanship. It was really a pleasure to watch these healthy young women compete in this event especially since we had never heard of it before. 

 

Today, 75 Christmases have passed, and it might surprise Linda’s 17 grandchildren to think that their grandma once thought of herself as a gun toting, hard riding cowgirl.  The spirit of adventure has never left Linda. Earlier this year she thoroughly enjoyed re-reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and right now she is enthralled by Melville’s Moby Dick. Still, she likes to think back and remember those days in Whiter Plains. Her favorite radio show was The Lond Ranger. Who could ever forget the William Tell Overture and the announcer’s words, “Return with us now to those glorious days of yesteryear.”

 

PS. Amazingly, kindergarten cowgirl friends Barbara and Eleanor are still friends although one resides in New Hampshire and the other in Florida.

 

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