-->
.
Jane and I flew non-stop from San Diego to the JFK Airport
in New York. This, of course was undreamed of when I was 6. To fly across the
country in 6 hours (or even to board an airplane) was way beyond my greatest
imagination. I had to think about the preparations needed for the 60-mile trip
to Grandma and Grandpa Kieschnick in Lincoln Texas. That meant packing our
Model A Ford for a long trip. We had to be especially sure that we had enough
patches for the inner tubes of our car. We had to anticipate the likelihood of
a flat tire as we rode along those country roads, I recalled how mom and dad and (at
that time there were 8 of us crowded into that slow moving car of ours) and we
had to leave room for some of the canned vegetables or fruit Grandma Kieschnick was sure to send back home with us.
When we reached Connecticut Daughter Elizabeth had her home
beautifully and wonderfully decorated. The candles were always lit, the fireplace
always burning, the Christmas tree majestic. She even remembered special foods
from my childhood special fried sausage on Christmas morning, eggnog every night,
homemade cookies and candies all over the place. I remembered the deep poverty
of 1933 as we were in the heart of the Great Depression. We were thrilled to
get an orange in our Christmas stocking. I received back my little tricycle
that the birds had carried away a couple weeks before Christmas and then
reappeared all repainted and shiny under my Christmas tree.
The Christmas Eve worship experiences were radically
different. When I was a child the service focused on the children with all of
us parochial school kids sitting in the front of the church, reciting our
“pieces”, singing the carols in three part harmony and giving memorized answers
to pre-assigned questions from our teachers, always beginning with “Welches
hoest fest feiern wir in diesen tagen?” (Which high festival do we celebrate in
these days?). This year the children’s pageant had been presented the previous
Sunday. More radical differences: the pastor was a woman!! Those in attendance
included black people, Hispanics and people from India-. I honestly believe
that if any black persons had come to our Christmas Eve service in 1933 they would
have been asked to leave the church or go sit in a secluded corner apart from
the white people there. Once again daughter Elizabeth did honor tradition.
After the service she took me to the big tree in the front of the church and
there was that old paper bag and in it were the traditional orange, a few nuts
and of course: a whole package of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum. In 1933 I got one stick and that was the total amount
for the year!
When I was six my family and all of my relatives lived
within a day’s driving distance. Now my kids live on both coasts and one daughter-in-law
lives in Spain. Christmas contact included not only Skype but also email,
texts, Facebook and all the other connections that were well beyond our Walburg
days when we did not even have a telephone.
So the differences abound. Yet Elizabeth and family were
centered on that first Christmas as she had the Advent wreath lit, the
Scriptural prophecies read and the timeless message were celebrated. God is
love and came to dwell among us and daily invites us bring Joy to the World, a
world ever changing and ever the same.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment