In second grade I interviewed my grandfather for an assignment at school.

The project was to present a report about Christmas in another country. We could conduct interviews, use different resources and put it together however we wanted. My assignments in college were easier than what Mrs. McKinney had assigned before my Christmas break of 1988.

I checked with my mom, a fourth grade school teacher, to see if the instructions given would fit into what I had in mind: conducting an interview with my grandfather, Thomas Savage Bryars, who grew up during The Depression in Latham, Alabama. Latham in my grandfather’s boyhood was indeed another country and very different from what the Nintendo Generation, my generation, had ever witnessed.

I would use my little sister’s cassette recorder to present my report to my class, since my handwriting was atrocious for an eight year old. It has gotten worse since. Mom helped with some of the questions. Some.

Granddaddy and I discussed the questions I prepared beforehand. He gave me answers that were more in-depth than what was later recorded on tape. Once he explained things as he figured I should know them, I’d hit record and ask him the questions again. He gave a more classroom-appropriate answer on tape. It taught me a lot about how to conduct an interview. Looking back as a 29-year-old newspaper editor, I find that interesting.

“What were things like when you were my age?” asked the little boy on the recording.

“When I was your age, we didn’t have electric lights or central heat or air conditioning. All the homes were heated with burnt wood in fireplaces. You had to chop the wood during the day to burn to keep warm at night. In the summer time if it got hot, you would just fan yourself to stay cool.”

When I graduated from Baldwin County High School in 1999 many of my closest friends had no air conditioning. Some people still don’t ten years later.

How was Christmas different for my boyhood hero when he was my age?

There were no places you could buy Christmas trees, he said. You’d go out and cut one down. There was no electricity, so the trees were lit with candles held on the limbs with wires.

“When I was about six years old, Mama got up and lit the tree one night,” he said. “The paper bells caught fire and Papa had to jump up and get a bucket of water and put the fire out. That ended the lit trees at our house from then on.”

Santa Clause visited, even during The Depression. Stockings wouldn’t hold the loot my grandfather and his many siblings anticipated. So they put out boxes by the fireplace. Santa would fill the boxes with apples, oranges, bananas and a variety of nuts. He didn’t mention candy.

Toys weren’t kid specific. More kids specific. There was a tricycle one year, a coaster wagon another and a goat and a wagon and harness yet another year.

Presents weren’t available at the local big box store. There were general stores that sold the necessities. Around Christmas time, shop owners would put out special things for parents to purchase, if they had the means. If not, items were put away until next year, when maybe someone had a way to spend for something that might make a child’s growing up that much more memorable.

“If you didn’t get it at the general store,” my grandfather told me, “you could order it from the Sears and Roebuck catalog.” He pronounced it “Siz’rowbuck.”

“Oh, you could get good service out of Siz-rowbuck. Their store was in Atlanta, Geh’awga. You could mail off an order on Monday morning. The mailman would pick it up and by Wednesday your order would be filled and you’d get a package back of what you’d ordered. Now, that’s mighty good service, going all the way to Atlanta and back in just three days.”

There is more on that 30 minute tape than I can fit into this page. More about his first job out of high school, earning each day what most people spend on a drink at the convenience store now days. He worked from sun up until sun down in the summer heat in Baldwin County after he graduated. He saved $60 dollars. Quite a sum then.

My grandfather died shortly after that interview. My mom found the recording again when I was in high school and the two of us would listen to it at Christmas time up until she died a few years back. We still listen to it in my house this time of year.

Things haven’t changed all that much since my grandfather was eight, or eighteen. I don’t think people have either. Some still need. Thankfully, many still give.

There may be new gadgets out now that can tell you where you’re going. But nothing can tell you where you’ve been or like your own experiences and what you’ve learned from them. I’ve learned that in tough times people will go to great lengths to provide a better life for those around them. I wish you the best in life this week, a week that celebrates a special life that provided for us all.