The Woods Is Full Of ‘Em

Monday, December 19, 2022

Ghosts of Xmas Past -- more from Bald Knob

Xmas 1981 at Lester and Cleffie's house in Bald Knob, Arkansas

(Wathada knitted the stockings you can barely see hanging above the air-conditioner)

Top: Cleffie got a BIG box of candy

Bottom: Christopher and Lester

Christopher got a 'busy box' toy and a new rocking chair of his very own

And BUBBLES!

(BTW, that's the best haircut I've ever had. And I got it from a barber.)

Ghosts of Xmas Past - 1981 at Bald Knob

And then there was the year that it snowed in Arkansas and our plumbing froze and ruptured... So we spent our Xmas at Grandma and Papa Burford's house in Bald Knob.

Christopher and me playing in the snow at Burfords' house in Bald Knob

Christopher

This picture obviously wasn't taken that Xmas. It was taken in 1986. (That's Cleffie at the door.) It's the only picture I have that shows the outside of their house.

Me and Keith and Christopher

Sunday, December 18, 2022

Ghosts of Xmas Past - 1979 and 1980

Our first Xmas tree

The first year we were married (1977, when we moved from Fairhope to Monroeville, Alabama) we borrowed a small artificial tree from Keith's mother and decorated it with Xmas cards that we received in the mail that year, because we didn't have any ornaments. I thought I had a picture of that tree at one time, but if I did I have lost it somewhere along the way. This picture was taken in 1979 in the living room of our house in Searcy, Arkansas. We lived in an apartment in Searcy the Xmas of 1978, and I don't have any pictures at all from that year.

Christopher's first Christmas, 1980

We were renting a nice 3-bedroom house. The only problem was that it only had one gas heater that was not sufficient to heat the whole house. So in the winter we closed off the living room and two bedrooms and moved the living room furniture into the dining room (where the heater was). The dining room was huge, anyway, and could well have served as the main room of the house year-round. The one window-unit air conditioner (behind the curtain in this photo) was in that room, too. This picture was taken in the dining room -- the kitchen is to the left. Christopher was 7 months old. He was a book eater at a very young age. Looks like that's a Little Golden Book -- Frosty the Snowman.

This is the house we lived in from 1979 until 1981. We lived here when Christopher was born. It was on McRae street in Searcy, Arkansas

Here's another view of the house. The back door into the dining room was under the carport. (We never used the front door.) To the left of the carport was a fenced-in area where Keith grew a garden.

That's Wathada holding Christopher, and Keith, standing under the carport.

Keith's garden

Christopher holding a carrot that Keith grew in his garden.

Happy memories of our time in that house.

Saturday, December 17, 2022

Ghosts of Xmas Past -- oops, I forgot about this one

I thought I didn't have any Xmas pictures from the time I graduated from high school until after I was married. But I forgot about this one. Mom and Dad and John moved into this house on Linden Street in Hartford during my freshman year in college, so I never really lived in this house. I spent a couple of Christmases and a couple of summers here -- but apparently I didn't take any pictures. Don't know who took this one -- Dad or John, I guess. We had Xmas Eve with the Thomas family at our house that year. You can barely see us in this photo, but that's me on the left and Mom on the right. We were wearing matching plaid dresses. This would have been 1973, I think.

Ghosts of Xmas Past -- at Topsy's

I think I'm finished with my childhood Christmases. Let's look at my grown-up (ish) holidays for a while.

This was the first Xmas after I married Keith. We were at his mother's house, in the process of moving from our cute cottage in Fairhope to a dreary trailer park in Monroeville (the jumping-off-place at the ass end of the world). Well it seemed like a good idea (to Keith, anyway) at the time. His job at Greer's grocery store decided to give him a 'promotion' to produce manager at the Monroeville store. The pick-up truck in the background is the one we filled up with all our belongings - ON XMAS EVE -- and drove the 92 miles to Monroeville where our erstwhile landlord was to meet us to give us the keys to the trailer. Of course, he didn't show up. No cell phones back then, so we couldn't even call him. So... we drove all the way BACK to Fairhope, where we were welcomed with derision by all the other relatives gathered at Topsy's house for the holidays. (Was that an omen, a glimpse into my future of marital bliss? Definitely.)

Me and the other in-laws at Topsy's (Keith's mother) house for Xmas 1977.
L-R: Florence (Aubrey's wife), Garland (Sissy's husband), Lucia (Sonny's wife)

Topsy Carrigan (her real name was Annie Viola, but nobody ever called her anything but Topsy), with Casey and Christopher. This looks like it would have been about 1984. Not Xmas, but I included the picture because it's the closest thing I have to a picture of the outside of her house.

Topsy and Christopher, in the living room of her house. This would have been summer of 1981. We lived in Arkansas from 1978 to 1985, and twice a year we made the trip back to Fairhope for a week.