pchrist.html

This story was submitted for use here by Mrs. Violet Thompson.

A PIONEER CHRISTMAS … JANUARY 1, 1921
Mary Rundall Andrews Jebe

As the hubbub of Christmas is over I've been dreaming of the Pioneers Christmases about forty years ago when the Camas Prairie pioneers had real Christmas joy. They would all gather at some neighbor's house to spend the day, and likely as not, part of the night.
Talk about the good things to eat! My!… there were fat geese and ducks from Conboy Lake and those juicy blackcaps that we used to pick on Stump hill, and huckleberries and cranberries, too, from the marshes of Camas Prairie, and hazelnuts! Oh, I can't begin to think or recall the many good things the tables held. As I ponder and dream of the past I can just hear the neighbors, a-flockin' in on Christmas morn.
For it was; "How-de-do, Uncle Billy Frasier. Come right in! Merry Christmas! Don't mind the snow". And it was, "How-de-do, Mrs. Kreps. You didn't have to bring that basket. My! but its heavy. I reckoning it's huckleberry pie. "
"Stir up the fire, Pa. It's mighty cold out there today!" Della, will you look after that goose in the oven and don't let the pies burn".
There comes Peter Conboy with his brand new cutter … oh, he's going on by. I expect he is going to bring Katie Stack. Here comes our Camas Prairie bachelors, Peter Holt and Tom Quigley They're always welcome. You know, they don't have a pretty wife to cook for them at Christmas. "Come in and a Merry Christmas to you". And here's the twins. My how they grow! "To come right in and go close to the fire".
"Roll another log on the fire, Pa".
Say listen, there comes George Lyle. I can tell him by his whistling. He's bringing that pretty Snyder girl. "Howdy-do. Merry Christmas! Come right in and don't mind the snow". Al Bertschi and Cass Wright were always welcome on account of their fiddling. "Come on in. My! isn't it cold?"
"Katie and Nettie, will you please arrange the tables and Maggie and Millie, you can count the people. There are the Barker's, Frazier's, Shaw's, Conboy's, Bertschi's, Stump's, Berg's, Suksdorf's, McGrath's, Troh's and Dymond's. The Dietman's, Kreps, Cole's, Kuhnhausen's. I just can't remember all.
Sophia, you look after the goose in the oven. And Pa, do fix up the fire. It's cold out there today".
I'll tell you that was Christmas … when all your neighbors came trooping in!
Lawsey me! If there don't come the Jebe's from Cottonwood Slough. And the James Murray's from the Pannicannick with their whole families. I wonder how they ever got through all this snow! They must be half frozen. "Knute and Oliver, you boys run out and help them put their horses in the lower log barn! Hurry up!"
It was "How-de-do! Come right in! Merry Christmas to all!
After all we had all eaten so much we couldn't talk or hardly grunt, Grandma Cole would say, "Come all you children and I will tell you the Christmas story"! You had just aught to have seen that those little ones flock around her. There was baby Betty Shaw, little Riley and Eddie Murray and Mattie, too. Frankie Frasier and a dozen others eager to listen to the sweet voice of Grandma Cole as she told all about Jolly Old Nick and the little baby Jesus that was born so long ago.
That was real Christmas! No invitations to write out, no one was left out and nobody stayed at home. My, but I do like to remember the noise of that Christmas morn when all the neighbors came flocking in. I wish my dream would come true once more! For it was "How-de-do, come right in and Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you all!

Mary, with love.