In Cedarfield tradition, the Pastoral Care Team created this compilation of holiday memoirs by team members and residents. We will share one a day through the holidays. Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Nancy Brown, Resident
In the mid-fifties my parents kept my sister and me “in the dark” the twomonths before Christmas. Daddy’s workshop was suddenly off-limits. Mymother would blindfold us before measuring us for a surprise outfit shewould create on her sewing machine. One year we received doll beds with highchairsand cowgirl outfits; another time, tables for our shared bedroom and nurseuniforms. Each gift was a delight, but that table I received may have given me ahead start in my teaching career.
This table was used as a desk, but its top was a chalkboard that could be easilylifted and secured for “instruction.” My class included my sister, younger friends,and their dolls. And I always called the roll. One doll was a “Betsy Wetsy,” andanother when turned over said, “MA-MA” and then “PA-PA.” Others like “TheBride Doll” and the Madame Alexanders seemed more sophisticated than most ofthe students. No matter, this was a diverse class that welcomed those who generallyhad a ten-minute attention span.
I had a growing library of books Daddy thought he had hidden well in his chestof drawers every December. The topics I “taught,” however, were not Little Womenand The Secret Garden, but basic addition and subtraction, simple diagrammedsentences, and a few vocabulary words. We also often sang “Jacob’s Ladder.” Mytopics were gleaned from wonderful elementary school teachers.
It is my parents I most remember. They made two daughters aware of how“…God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…” and they alsoshowed immense love in such memorable ways.
