'Christmas on the Farm' memories often center on simple pleasures and cold weather

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Linda Gill, a nutrition program assistant in McDonald County, has a cherished Christmas memory from 1955 when her dad was a hired hand on a cotton farm near Jonesboro, Ark.

"Times had been rough for us prior to Christmas and we were not able to get a Christmas tree like usual. My sister and I wondered what we were going to do without a Christmas tree for Santa to leave our presents under," said Gill.

Knowing of her daughter's concern, Gill's mom took the girls out into a field and they pulled up the tallest cotton stalk before her father got them plowed under.

"Momma pulled it up, shook off the dirt and said it was going to be our Christmas tree. On our way back to the house we picked up some of the leftover cotton balls to use," said Gill.

The girls watched as their mom placed the stalk in a big coffee can and stripped off the leaves. She then wrapped every branch and the stalk with white cotton. The girls made decorations for the family Christmas tree out of colored knitting string, aluminum foil and colored paper.

"That was the prettiest Christmas tree we ever had 'cause it was made with love. Santa apparently liked it too because he left my sister and me both a doll under it on Christmas morning," Gill said.

Sledding tale

Ed Browning, a natural resources engineering specialist in Jasper County, grew up on a dairy and crop farm in central Missouri. His dad milked about 60 cows that had to be fed large amounts of silage during the day, maybe a little hay and always ground feed during milking.

He was 13 years old and excited to be starting his Christmas vacation. By New Year's Day, the farm had snow drifts six feet deep and the in-ground trench silo was filled with snow.

"We had to dig to get the silage out. We were out of ground feed and the custom feed grinder wasn't able to get his truck to us because of the snow-filled roads," said Browning.

Fortunately, Browning's father had a tractor with a carrier mounted on the back for hauling supplies. He planned to use the tractor to get sacked feed from the store (located five miles from the farm). Browning and his best friend attached their sleds to the back of the tractor.

"It's not all the hardship of the snow during that Christmas vacation that I remember. It was following the tractor on a snow sled ... to the store and back. Weaving across the road, dodging piles of snow, and dragging our feet going downhill so we didn't slide under the tractor," said Browning.

52 below zero

Bob Schultheis, a natural resource engineering specialist in Webster County, grew up on a farm in southeast Washington. He remembers Christmas Day 1968 when the thermometer outside read 52 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.

"We had been hauling water in buckets to the livestock for several weeks, because the water lines (which were buried 5 feet deep) were all frozen," said Schultheis.

The farm tractors were kept idling 24 hours a day so the diesel wouldn't gel in the fuel lines. Ice on the inside of the family's poorly-insulated house windows was a quarter-inch thick.

"We wore five layers of clothes outdoors doing chores and looked like polar explorers with the icicles hanging from the scarves covering our faces," said Schultheis.

Suitable tree

For Rick Mammen, director of MU Extension's Southwest Region, the annual Christmas celebration started when the family went out to find a suitable cedar Christmas tree in the pasture.

"Seems like this expedition was almost always very cold, but it was still very (heart) warming," said Mammen. "It was exciting to be scouting the area with my dad, knowing that the tree would end up in our living room with gifts under it." Year after year, it seems as though the fondest memories that Ozarkers have of Christmas on the farm center around extreme weather, enduring hardships or special family outings.

That may be either a testament to the Ozark spirit or an observation about human nature.

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