Seniors share memories of Christmases past
Staff writer
Listening to Marion seniors talk about Christmas past shows that it’s not the presents that matter, it’s the presence of others.
Sharon Rizo said her fondest Christmas memory was 1977, when she was in nursing school and living with her parents in Augusta. Her older brother lived in Wichita.
Christmas Day was planned at her brother’s house. He was notoriously tight with a dollar.
“We told my brother that if he didn’t buy Christmas gifts, we were going to burn his [presents] in the front yard,” Rizo said with a chuckle.
Her mother did the cooking for the holiday meal, and the family had a warm time spending the day together.
Kathy Goentzel said her merriest Christmas memory was from 1958.
“It finally was my year to play Mary in church, and I was so happy to do that,” she said.
Mary Lou Schmidt Herren said her stand-out Christmas memory was the second year her husband was stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“We lived there as a family,” she said.
Their three children spanned from nearly 5 years old to nearly 3 months old when the family lived in Cuba.
The second Christmas in Guantanamo, the families on the U.S. airbase had a Christmas party.
“A woman came in wearing a fur coat and her Christmas dress,” Herren said. “I’ve never forgotten that. Most of us were in shorts.”
Jerry Kline said his favorite Christmas was when he was 11 years old.
“My mom told me this was the last truck I was going to get,” he said. “I still have it today.”
Bunk Ludwig remembers getting his first cowboy hat from the Jim Bell store in Cottonwood Falls in the 1940s.
Bill Goertzen said his family didn’t believe in Santa Claus.
“Dad said [Santa] fell off the barn and broke his neck,” Goertzen said. “That was the only time we ever got candy. Dad said the real meaning of Christmas was the baby [Jesus].”
During Bob Schmidt’s childhood, Christmas candy, oranges, and peanuts were given out at a fire station by Santa Claus.
Lu Turk recalled a Christmas when her father was stationed overseas. At age 6, she knew her father would not be home for the holiday.
As the family was having dinner, she heard a sound outside the front door.
“I answered the door, and Santa was there,” she said. “He handed us presents and said dad had told him to say ‘hi.’ ”
Dale Lind’s happiest Christmas was in 2004.
“We got the entire family together in Yellowstone Park,” Lind said.
The family even got permission to cut down a Christmas tree.
“The highlight was, we always went to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day,” Lind said. “The temperature was 4 degrees below. We decided not to go to church.”
Instead, the family observed the meaning of Christmas together in their Yellowstone cabin.
The next morning, Lind’s son asked what he was going to have for breakfast. When he said he would eat Christmas dinner leftovers, the son had to confess that the rest of them had eaten all the leftovers during the night.