Chistmas memories from Roundup long ago….

Christmases at our home at 1402 Second Street West in Roundup are only memories. The Christmas tree always seemed to be bought just a couple of days before the holiday itself.
We didn’t have little lights in the early 1960s; we had big colored lights. They were the first thing to be hung on the tree. Next would come strings of shiny metal beads.

Then came the balls and Mom seemed to have a story about everyone. One of her favorites was a transparent blue ball. It didn’t have any writing on it or snow flake designs, but it was special simply because it was old. We also had little plastic ornaments that reminded me of blue and green carousals at the fair. Inside them were shiny spinners that would turn if you placed them above one of those big colored lights on the tree. There were also some candy canes that were hung on the tree as well.

Finally, there was tinsel to be hung. Long silvery, shimmering tinsel but only the big kids with lots of patience could help because you had to take one piece at a time and hang it on a limb.

Under the tree could be found the presents. Often these consisted of socks, underwear, Chinese checkers, a deck of playing cards and if you got a present that looked like everyone else’s, chances are it was a box of Lifesavers. Grandmas were great for buying everyone Lifesavers, and we had two Grandmas.

One year I wanted a toy machine gun, with a plastic backpack and a khaki green combat helmet. The outfit looked very authentic in the Sears Christmas catalog, but when I got it you couldn’t help but notice that the barrel was broken. Not to worry, because Uncle Ralph fixed it by taping some popsicle sticks to the barrel and, voila, it was good as new.

Often, Christmas shopping meant driving over to Billings. While we might shop at Sears in West Park Plaza, our general route seemed to include downtown stores like Skaggs and Penney’s. We would park about three blocks away and walk to the stores. Skaggs, which was a miniature version of a discount store with a huge candy counter, was always a favorite of mine. They had toys and candy for sale. In the winter, they opened their basement and it was a little kid's fantasyland.

Down the block was Penney’s. They had an escalator that frightened me. Also I knew that if a present was bought for me at Penney’s, it was probably going to be clothes or shoes. They also had drinking fountains, tall drinking fountains with the worst water I’ve ever tasted. But the water was cold -- ice cold.

Besides the gifts from my parents, I always liked opening the present from my sister Janet. She always seemed to have an “age-appropriate” gift for me. For instance, paper dolls, scissors and paste made a very nice gift for a six-year-old. She also worked at the library so seemed to have more money to buy me nice gifts.

I don’t know who bought it for me or how old I was, but I remember getting a spinning top once or twice. The tops not only spun but also sang – not a song but a high pitched noise – anyway it was cool and I could keep the top going for a long time.

My older brother Randy got neat gifts, like a vibrator-board football game. It was a huge gift. He set it up and it took over the top of his dresser, and he had a big long dresser. When I got older, Randy and I used to play vibrator football from Thanksgiving through Christmas.

I don’t remember much about meals at Christmas, but I do remember that Dad like to have bags full of nuts and candy under the tree for all of us kids. He said his Dad used to do that, too, so it became a tradition.

If we shopped in Roundup, it was probably at the Knauss dime store. That’s where I bought presents once I had money to do so. Later they made a Hollywood movie in Roundup and little Melissa Gilbert threw a brick and broke the plate glass window of the Knauss store. My brother Randy sent me a copy of the movie…I think he bought it off of e-Bay.

The other thing I remember about downtown Roundup was the Santa Claus. It was none other than Ezra “Bunny” Cartwright, my Aunt Milly’s husband. We didn’t really get to say much to Santa Claus because we knew who he was, however, we did get a little candy cane from him. That was the smallest candy cane that they make.

I’m pretty hazy also about when we opened presents, but it seems like it was either Christmas morning or Christmas Eve. I suppose it depended upon when everyone was home. Gene worked at Ray’s grocery, Janet worked at the library and Dad worked on oil rigs. Anyway it seemed like a busy group, but I was content to let the world turn around me as I concentrated on the Christmas catalog and floated away into holiday bliss. Certainly, I would agree that anticipating Christmas was much better than opening gifts. However, I liked the gifts, too!

The picture of the little boy with Panda bear is the author at Christmas in 1961. The boy with the sled is none other than Ar Vee.