A Coal Camp Christmas

A Coal Camp Christmas

A Story by Nancy Lee Shrader

A Coal Camp Christmas

 

By Nancy Lee Shrader

 

 

Laurie Wood looked out her tiny window, watching the snowflakes whirl past in a frantic race to reach the North Pole. Her eight year old mind was sure that was where they were going. Santa needed the snow under his sleigh on Christmas Eve. Visions of miniature people called elves loading toys on Santa’s sleigh filled her young mind. Her pa said that elves had pointed ears and if she ever saw someone with pointed ears, they were most likely one of Santa’s elves come to see who was naughty and who was nice. The new boy in school sort of had pointy ears. She wondered if just maybe he was an elf. Some of the other kids at school made fun of his ears, but stopped when she told them the story that her pa told her about the elves. Santa sent them out to see who was good and who was bad. Some of the boys even brought extra food in their lunches and offered to share with the new boy.

 

Laurie’s eyes moved downward. She noticed her Pa heading for the barn. She wondered why he was spending so much time out there. What was so important that he couldn’t tear himself away to spend time with the family, especially during the evening hours? Laurie missed the nightly hoedowns, with her pa playing the fiddle and she and her sisters dancing in their nightgowns on the cold wood floor in front of a roaring fire with their brothers. All the foot stomping made the long cold winter evenings happy and carefree and her toes just a little bit warmer. Her feet had grown so much that her toes were sticking out the end of her knitted slippers that her ma had given her the previous Christmas, but she knew that more would be forth coming, because she could hear the clicking of knitting needles before she fell asleep each night, four slippers, a pair for her and her sisters, Mary, Elizabeth and Sarah. Mary was fourteen, Elizabeth, thirteen and Sarah four. She also had four brothers, Albert sixteen, Jeremiah fifteen, Caleb nine and Dennis six.

 

Laurie shared the right side of the bedroom loft with her two sisters Mary and Elizabeth. Sarah her baby sister would move into the loft when she was older, but until then she slept on a small cot in their parent’s bedroom. The boys shared the left side of the loft with a wall built between for privacy. Laurie couldn’t wait for Sarah to move up the ladder, because there would be another bed hoisted up into the loft. Three girls in a bed is big on warmth, but not much for turning over in comfort. A sudden thought whirled around in her brain. Was there enough room for another bed? Another body in the bed would really be crowded. Laurie turned to look. She measured the space on both sides of the bed with her eyes. Yes, she was sure that another bed would fit nicely and a fourth hook on the wall would balance everything out. She shook her head. Of course there was room. The boys had two beds on their side of the loft.

 

Laurie was five when she climbed the ladder for the first time. She had been so excited and really enjoyed snuggling between her two sisters, but as she grew the bed seemed to be getting smaller. Sarah would turn five at the end of January, so maybe it wouldn’t be too much longer. She imagined herself in a big new bed with a fluffy new down mattress covered with a brand new quilt. Her ma had spent almost every Saturdays at Grandma Bridgman’s house with a group of women making new quilts for the long winter months, but she never brought one home. Laurie wondered if she had, but put it up for a big Christmas surprise or a surprise for Sarah’s birthday.

 

A sudden blast of wind and the slamming of the barn door jolted Laurie back to reality and then another blast of wind swung the door open causing it to bang against the barn wall. She could see her pa carrying something, but couldn’t seem to make out what it was, a piece for the new wagon she thought. He must have put whatever it was down, because he appeared in the doorway and took hold of the door and pulled it shut again.

 

Laurie could hear her sisters in the kitchen below discussing the art of cookie making. Christmas was usually a joyous time of year for the Wood family, but the recent explosions in the mines had caused a winter shutdown. Money was tight. Laurie knew this by listening to her ma telling her sisters that the cookie recipe would have to be cut in half this year. She wondered if Santa would even come since pa didn’t have any money to pay the jolly ole elf. Santa had always come, even the year that pa broke his leg and couldn’t work all summer long. It hadn’t been a big Christmas, but he still came. Pa loved telling that story every Christmas, but then there were only Albert, Jeremiah and Mary. There were five more kids this Christmas. Still, there was the Christmas party at the company store. She knew that she would get a nice gift there, but then she wondered if the explosions had canceled the Christmas party too.

 

Laurie thought about sneaking out to the barn to see what her pa was doing, but thought better of the idea. Her ma was taking in coats and making Mary a new one. Elizabeth had grown into Mary’s old coat, but Elizabeth’s had to be taken in so it would fit Laurie and Laurie’s had to be taken in to fit Sarah. Laurie’s shoes were too tight and she had been wearing a pair of Elizabeth’s old shoes. One had a hole in the side and leaked. There was water standing in the yard from the rains the previous week and her feet stayed wet all that last week. She decided to stay inside and not venture out into the cold wet yard. Everyone was hoping for new shoes for Christmas, especially Laurie. All the kids usually got new shoes at the end of summer, but there had been little work with all the cave-ins and now the explosions.

 

Mary climbed the ladder and saw Laurie sticking her finger through the hole in her hand me down shoe. "Hey try these." Mary said, pulling a pair of shoes out from her side of the bed. "I found these this morning when I was sweeping the loft. These are my old shoes from a couple of years ago. I forgot they were there. They are kind of scuffed but they don’t have any holes in them. I think that if you wear two pairs of thick socks they will do just fine."

 

Laurie pulled on another pair of socks and tried on the shoes. "They feel pretty darn good. Thanks Mary."

 

 

 

Calvin Wood was hard at work in the barn. He almost had the mahogany table and chairs completed. The Superintendant’s wife wanted a new dining table with matching chairs for Christmas. Pa had overheard the Superintendant making the order at the company store and the store’s proprietor telling the Superintendant that there was no way he could get it before Christmas. Calvin spoke up quickly. The conversation between him and the Superintendant rolled over in his mind.

 

"Mr. Mason, sir, I could build one better than you can buy out of that catalog." He pointed out several items in the company store that he had made in trade for a new cook stove that he planned to give Madge for Christmas.

 

"How much would you charge?" The Superintendant asked.

 

"I have eight younguns and they all need new shoes, sir."

 

"Eight, you say." The Superintendant looked at the price of the table and chairs in the catalog. Being a fair man, he knew that he was getting the much better deal. "Tell you what. To make everything fair and square, pick out some yard goods for your Mrs. I’m sure those younguns would like new duds as well. And if you are able to make the matching hutch before Christmas you can pick out one gift a piece for each of your children."

 

Calvin shook the Superintendant’s hand and asked the proprietor for the shoe fits hanging on a hook behind the counter. "May I take these home to get their sizes. I will bring it back later this afternoon." The proprietor agreed knowing that it was a sure sale.

 

"Hey Johnson, put those shoes on my bill now and the yard goods too. His Mrs. will need enough time to make those Christmas dresses. Those eight gifts, add those too. Oh, throw in a bag of flower and a bag of sugar and some oranges and nuts as well."

 

"Thank you Mr. Mason. You won’t be sorry. Your Mrs. will love the table chairs and hutch. Did you want to pick out the fabric for the chair cushions?"

 

"I don’t know anything about that sort of thing. My wife likes green."

 

"How many yards of material do you want added, Mr. Mason?" Johnson asked the Superintendant before he left the store.

 

"Whatever is needed for eight youngun and his Mrs.," he replied. Oh and whatever Wood picks out for the cushions, put that on the bill too.

 

"Thanks Mr. Mason, sir. I will have the work done and delivered to your house by Christmas Eve. Calvin left the company store with a much lighter heart.

 

 

 

"Younguns, I need you all in the house!" Calvin hollered as walked up the dusty road that led to the little log cabin, swinging the chain filled with shoe fits. "The proprietor of the company store said he needed your shoe sizes on file, ifn’ I can come up with the money after Christmas. So get on in here, so I can see what sizes you all need, so I can get these fits back to the store."

 

 

 

Madge left Mary in charge of the younger children and accompanied her husband back to the company store to help chose the yard goods and gifts. Madge smiled as she walked alongside her ingenious husband. She talked unstop the entire way. They needed to decide what gifts to choose. "Laurie and Sarah’s gifts will be easy---dolls of course." She said smiling knowing the exact ones. She had noticed Laurie looking wide eyed at the big baby doll wearing the long white Christening gown, while Sarah smiled sweetly at the smaller doll identical to the one Laurie liked. "Dennis and Caleb both fancied the iron toys. I think a set of toy soldiers for Caleb and a miniature steam engine for Dennis." Mary had laid down her dolls the previous year and she hadn’t seen Elizabeth with a doll for some time now. She looked up and noticed that they were there already.

 

Calvin went to the counter and gave Mr. Johnson the list of sizes and picked out the shoes, while Madge was looking at the yard goods. Everything was so pretty. How could she choose from so many bolts of cloth? The girls had never had dresses made from such fine cloth. All their clothes were made from feed sacks, pretty feed sacks, but feed sacks all the same. This material was so soft to the touch. Finally she made her selections. She would be staying up late every night until Christmas. She decided to give the girls a few extra chores, so she could spend her days at the sewing machine that Calvin bought her two Christmases ago.

 

"Look Calvin!" She exclaimed loudly. Look in the case here! These would be perfect for Mary and Elizabeth." She pointed out brush, comb and mirror sets. One was gold and the other silver with delicate carvings.

 

"Dear, look at the price. They are too much."

 

Mr. Johnson walked over to the display case. "Tell you what, if you make a sled for my boy, I’ll make up the difference."

 

"You have a deal." Calvin said, smiling at his wife.

 

"Now all that is left are Albert and Jeremiah. Madge said. "Do you have any ideas dear?"

 

"Right over here. Albert sure spent a lot of time looking at this harmonica and it is in the price range. Jeremiah couldn’t take his eyes off the paints on the back wall the last time we were in the store; he will be a famous artist someday."

 

Mr. Johnson removed the harmonica from the display case and laid it aside with the other items that had been chosen. Then walked to the back of the store and got the paints down off the shelf on the back wall. "Well it looks like the Wood children are going to have a great Christmas. I’ll put these in the back until you bring the wagon into town."

 

"I’ll bring the sled when I come to pick them up."

 

"Here’s a can of red paint for my boy’s sled."

 

"Thanks Mr. Johnson. We will take the yard goods with us now."

 

Mr. Johnson bagged up the material and marked it in his book under the Superintendants name.

 

"But the youngun will see the packages."

 

"I’ll go in the back side of the barn and store them there until the younguns leave for school in the morning."

 

"I could start sewing tonight if you bring them in after the children are asleep."

 

"No problem, I’ll bring them in after they are asleep. Well let’s get on home before it gets dark."

 

 

 

Madge worked every day while the children were in school. Only five days till Christmas. She had knitted scarves, hats and mittens for all the younguns and slippers for the girls and night socks for the boys. She had used the plane feed sacks and made hunting bags for the boys. Dresses were made for the girls. Mary and Elizabeth were growing up so fast. She had decided to make them two dresses with matching bows for their hair. Mary’s dress had yellow daisies on a blue background made from the yard goods. The pale blue material would enhanced Mary’s blue eyes," she thought. The second dress was one Madge had worn on her first date with Calvin. A nip here and a tuck there and the old dress looked like the newest fashion. For Elizabeth, she chose the material that had pink roses on a pale yellow background, which would go so good with her golden blonde hair. At the bottom of her trunk Madge found another dress just perfect for Elizabeth. It had been her first grown up dress. It only took Madge less than an hour to do the necessary alterations. For Laurie’s dress she chose the solid red and trimmed it with white. Red always looked good against her dark hair and deep brown eyes. For little Sarah’s dress, Madge chose the emerald green because of her flashing green eyes. Madge had enough material left over from the boys’ shirts to make two rag dolls for Laurie and Sarah and enough material from their dresses to make matching dresses for the dolls. She had just finished embroidering the faces that morning. She was sewing the head on the last doll when she heard the children coming down the road toward the house. She quickly put everything out of sight and waited for the children, so she could assign the extra chores.

 

 

December 22 was the date set for the Christmas party every year. Laurie heard her pa talking about the goings on in town. The owners of the mine had a wagon load of wrapped gifts on his wagon when he came into town. Her pa said that tomorrow would be a really fun day for the younguns.

 

There was a table full of food in the old company store, when Laurie and her family walked in. It was the same as the previous year. A big tree filled with decorations stood in the middle of the big room. Presents wrapped so pretty that Laurie thought it would be a sin to tear open the wrappings. When the time came for the gifts to be handed out, Laurie was the first name that was called. She sat for several minutes, just looking at the pretty package. Pretty wrapped box had to be opened, but she took special care not to tear the paper. She planned to put it away and wrap her mother's gift the following year. A few minutes later, she had the wrappings neatly folded and she opened the box. Laurie's face lit up brighter than that Christmas tree. Inside the box was little red headed ragdoll, dressed in a dress covered with gingerbread men. It wasn't a big doll, but it had the most colorful face she had ever seen. She looked around the room and all the girls had similar dolls. Some with yellow hair some with black and even some with blue and green hair, but she liked her red headed doll best of all.

 

 

 

The breakfast dishes were soaking in the sink waiting for Mary and Elizabeth to come home. The girls never complained because they thought their ma was feeling poorly. Baby number nine would arrive sometime in February. They had no idea that their mother had been working non-stop on Christmas gifts for them. Laurie helped with Mary and Elizabeth’s usual chores while the two older girls finished the dishes and cleaned the downstairs of the log cabin. They heard their mother fussing at the old cook stove. It wasn’t heating evenly and had just burned a batch of biscuits. Madge had to quickly mix up another batch and get it in the oven before Calvin finished up in the barn.

 

"What’s pa doing out there in the barn?" Laurie asked.

 

"He’s building something for the superintendant so he can get us all shoes after Christmas." Albert said before his mother could answer Laurie’s question.

 

"Ma is Santa gonna come this year?" Laurie asked after hearing how hard her pa was working to get new shoes for his younguns.

 

"Why are you so worried about Santa?" Albert asked. "I thought you liked your new doll that you got at the Christmas party."

 

"I do, but I like to know that Santa is still going to come."

 

"Has Santa ever not come to the Wood house?"

 

"No." Laurie answered.

 

"Now you finish your chores and get washed up for supper."

 

"Yes Ma."

 

"May we start baking the Christmas cookies after supper tonight?" Mary asked.

 

"I don’t see why not. Oh and we won’t have to half the recipe. Pa traded for some flower and sugar at the company store. And it’s a good thing too. The way this old cook stove is burning stuff, we may be baking cookies until Christmas Eve."

 

"Albert, Jeremiah, give me a hand out in the barn." Calvin had come in from the barn and was standing in the doorway listening to the conversation about the cook stove. "I think I’m gonna give your ma her gift a little early this year."

 

"What have you done, Calvin?"

 

"You’ll see. Come boys."

 

Tears ran down Madge’s cheeks as she watch her husband and sons carry in the new cook stove.

 

"Quit crying girl. Get to making me some Christmas cookies and we won't be cutting the recipe in half. You will find plenty of sugar and flour inside the stove."

Saturday came and Madge had everything finished, but Calvin was still working non-stop. The table and chairs were finished and he was putting the final touches on the hutch. He planned to build the sled after lunch. Then he got an idea. Why not build some things for the younguns too. He still had three more days before Christmas Eve. In the next three days, Calvin built a knife case for Albert’s knives, a art case for Jeremiah’ s new paints, a sled for Caleb and a wagon for Dennis. Calvin used the rest of the red paint Mr. Johnson had given him and painted Caleb’s sled and Dennis’ wagon. He already had two dressing tables built that he planned to trade at the company store, but decided to give them to Mary and Elizabeth to display those fancy hair sets. He did the measuring and they would fit side by side in the loft bed room, even with the new bed he had been working on. Cradles for Laurie and Sarah’s store bought dolls. Mary and Elizabeth’s discarded doll cradles were in the hayloft. With a little lemon polish and a lot of buffing those old cradles looked like brand new.

 

 

On Christmas Eve morning, Calvin loaded up the sled, hutch, table and chairs. He headed first for the big house, which was what all the miners called the house belonging to the Superintendant. After unloading the new dining room suit, he headed into town to the company store. Mr. Johnson helped Calvin load the Christmas gifts in the wagon and he headed home. The children would be waiting to cut down the Christmas tree. Calvin took the back road that led to the back of the barn and unloaded the gifts and then turned the wagon around and went in the front way to the log cabin. He was right. The children had their noses pressed against the front room window watching for his return.

 

 

The Wood family gathered around the tree as Ma read the Christmas Story from the family Bible. The children listened in silence as the story of that first Christmas played out in their young minds. A baby born in a stable on a bed of hay became the Lord and Savior of all people everywhere. Ma finished the story and closed the Bible and as every Christmas that came before, the children climbed the ladder in silence. The impact of the Christmas story had left goose bumps on little Laurie Wood. How wonderful that God loved me that much, to send His Son especially for me, she thought. Laurie climbed into bed between her two sisters and the problem of being too crowded had completely vanished from her mind. Her worry over whether or not Santa would come this year was also a thing of the past. The wonder of that first Christmas was all she thought about as she drifted off to sleep, on that Christmas Eve in 1933.

© 2008 Nancy Lee Shrader


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Added on October 9, 2008

Author

Nancy Lee Shrader
Nancy Lee Shrader

Beckley, WV



About
Nancy Lee Shrader resides in Beckley, West Virginia. She is author of three books IS IT NOW? The End of Days! IS HE MESSIAH? Messianic Prophecies Revealed! And The Curse of Mayweather House Nancy Lee .. more..

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