This box has added a little bang to my Christmas each year.

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A more important question than the title asks is, “What are you giving for Christmas?”  I was giving this a little thought from the perspective of presents received by a little boy in Kentucky during the late Forties.  Yes, I was trying to recall some of my early Christmas memories.  It is very interesting to me that for the time and effort we spend choosing presents they do not rank high in my memories.  I remember more of the presents I gave to others than the ones I received.

It was very important that a present be properly wrapped.  I learned that from my mother.  I also learned that if you were not good at wrapping it was better if you enlisted the aid of others to do the wrapping.  I learned that from my dad.  He always disappeared when the wrapping paper came out.  We didn’t have those cute little bags available now.  

Christmas memories include candy making and candy eating at my great aunt Kate’s home.  Aunt Kate, as a child in Kentucky, had learned the fine art of candy making, mostly fudge.  Aunt Kate had some secret ingredients that she used.  The secret ingredients made her kitchen smell wonderful.  Aunt Kate was always cheerful when we visited and that cheerfulness, the aroma of the kitchen, and the taste of candy left a very lasting memory.  

Christmas trees were not bought; they were cut!  Members of my family had lived on the same farm for well over 100 years and for some reason the best Christmas trees never grew close to the house, they grew on the back of the farm.  Four wheel drive trucks were not common and ATVs didn’t exist.  Operating tractors on frozen ground had its hazards so fetching a Christmas tree was something you did on foot.  Taking a long walk with family, enjoying the smell of a fresh cut cedar made for lasting memories.  

My memories include the gifts I wanted but never received.  Little boys sometimes want things that just don’t make sense.  It didn’t have to make sense.  Santa didn’t have to bring it either; and he didn’t.  I have vivid memories of the electric train that Santa brought to my brothers and me.  Many long hours of play and fantasy as the “engineer” of the railroad.  A few crashes, and lessons in putting our toys up.

The train disappeared in the 1970s, but the box it lived in when it was put up continues to bring back Christmas memories.  That box was a special box.  My dad brought it home from work.  It is a wooden box used to ship material to the quarry dad operated.  

Some people get all excited and get on their soap box to share their thoughts.  Not me. I get on my dynamite box.  That old dynamite box brings back many great memories of Christmases past.

Merry Christmas!

Ed Tyler lives in Pell City. He may be reached at ed@edtylerinc.com