Earl Rowe, red faced and smiling, brought the large green
Christmas tree into the house. All of us
kids were so excited. The whole family
decorated the branches with colored balls and silver tinsel after Earl had
strung all the lights on the tree. Christmas was nearly here! Charlotte and I
would be lying on our tummies with our chins held in our hands, waiting and
watching to see which bubble light would bubble first. There were red, green, yellow and blue bubble
lights. Charlotte and I would pick our
favorite to win. First one and then another would start up. Giggles could be heard from us whenever our
bubble light would start bubbling.
Entertainment was easy then. For
lack of store bought toys, our imaginations were deeper than the ocean and
wider than the sky. Little things pleased us and made us happy. The fireplace had a roaring fire in it to
keep us toasty warm. It was beginning to look a lot like
Christmas.
Dorothy, Earl’s wife,
made a large, hot supper for all of us after our tree decorating. We ate her wonderful home cooked meals
often. Dorothy and Earl had 4 children,
Charlotte, Tommy, Earlene, and a baby named Becky. Dorothy had her hands full
but never seemed tired. She had a heart
of gold. The oldest child, Charlotte,
was my age- 4 years old; Tommy was 3; and I’m not sure how old Earlene
was. She was a child with special
needs. She could only lie around and
wait for someone to care for her. I was
too young to know what was wrong with her but accepted her because her whole
family, including the children, doted on her.
She was not left out of the festivities as she lay there looking around;
we hoped she could see the tree too.
We lived in the house with Dorothy and Earl and their
children. It was our first place to live
in Indiana that I can remember. Mom said
we lived in a place prior to that, perhaps with my Aunt and Uncle at the old
farm house where my dad grew up. Again,
I don’t remember, and mom is not here to ask.
You think your parents will be here forever when you are little so as
life goes on you fail to write things down. Dorothy and Earl were like family to us. They took mom, dad and me under their
wings. They were terrific people, now in
heaven I presume. Their house was a big
old fashioned red brick house with a big front porch and an apartment on the
back of the house where we lived, but mostly we were in the big part of the
house because Dorothy always invited us over.
She knew my mom missed her family back in Texas. One memory I have of my mom and her longing
for Texas was when she was ironing our clothes.
She was bent over the ironing board, ironing away in our apartment and
crying for Texas-for home. I felt her
sadness, it was palpable. The wonderful
Rowe’s did their best to keep us all content.
It was a wonderful place to be at Christmas, my first Christmas in
Indiana.
Written
Christmas season 2013 by SGT
