Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

Neighbor Dorothy’s Christmas Show

Elmwood Springs, Missouri

December 15, 1948

Neighbor Dorothy hurried into the living room and sat down, just as the red “on-air” light went on. “Good morning, everybody, and a happy December the fifteenth to you. It’s another pretty day over here in Elmwood Springs and I hope it is just as pretty where you are. Looking out my window this morning, I can see that the temperature is a chilly thirty-eight but it’s warm and cozy inside my house. Is there anything worse than a cold house? Thank goodness Doc gets up and puts on the fire. I’ll tell you, we all pile in the kitchen like chickens on these cold mornings. It’s hard to keep the biscuits cooked fast enough.… My canary birds are so pretty and yellow they look just like two scoops of banana pudding. Well, I have a news flash. Jeannette and Nelson Eddy are expecting—no, not what you think. It’s another big hit movie, called Blossom Time, and it will be coming to the Elmwood Springs theater soon, so be sure and look for it at a theater near you.… Do you have a winter garden in your window? I tell you, nothing is prettier or cheerier on dark winter days than to see ivy in the window … a little touch of spring all year round. If you don’t have ivy, get yourself a little dirt in a pot and just drop a lemon, an orange, or grapefruit seed in it and you will have a grand little plant. However, if you are intrested in something more substantial, Victor the florist offers this advice: Fuchsias will dangle bells of many shapes and colors. Dieffenbachias’ cream-splashed leaves are good in any window and come in several sizes. Grape ivy is fairly pest resistant … likes sunlight.… English ivy needs acid soil and shade and an African violet is always a delight. So go on down and get yourself a plant today.… Let’s see … what else do I have this morning, Mother Smith?” (Mother Smith played a few strains of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”) “Oh, that’s right … Santa Claus is coming to town, and he’s going to be in the back of Morgan Brothers department store, right next to the toy department, so everybody that wants to get their picture made, or tell him what they want for Christmas, be sure to go on down. Princess Mary Margaret is going right after the show today and have her picture made with Santa, and all the members of the Princess Mary Margaret fan club will be receiving one this year.… Oh, I don’t know about you, but Christmas has just come around so fast this year; I am hardly over Thanksgiving and here it is. Isn’t time just the oddest thing? Some days I don’t know where it goes. I look up and it’s suppertime and I feel like I just finished washing the breakfast dishes.… I’ve got to start thinking about baking my gingerbread men, and gumdrop cookies for our Christmas open house … and also don’t forget we are making a mitten tree this year for all the poor children that don’t have any. I hope all of you out there will get a chance to come to our open house—we always have a big time—we have so many exciting things planned. Dixie Cahill is bringing by some of her girls to dance for us, and the handbell choir from the Methodist Church will be here, and we are so glad that they have finally gotten their E-flat bell—it makes a big difference—so you don’t want to miss that … and food, food, food, and a present for everyone. Oh … and Ernest Koonitz will be joining us with his tuba. He’ll be playing ‘Joy to the World.’ Now that’s December twentieth down at the VFW. Doc informed me that we are going to put up our tree tonight, so after the show I’ve got to climb up in the attic and pull down all the Christmas decorations … and I’m not looking forward to that, so if any of you see Bobby, tell him I said to come straight home after school. I need him to help me.

“Now, let’s see … I had a few facts for you.… Oh, here’s a timely one … a fun fact about the Christmas poinsettia. Poinsettias come to us all the way from Mexico. A man named Joel Robert Poinsette brought them to South Carolina and hence the name … and we are mighty glad he did. But don’t forget, they are poisonous, so don’t eat them or let your pets chew on them.…”

Late that afternoon, Dorothy, Anna Lee, and Bobby met Doc downtown at the Rexall and they all walked over and picked a tree out from the vacant lot where the Civitan Club was selling them. At home Mother Smith was popping corn and all the Christmas decorations had been dug out of the attic, the back closet, and the cedar chest in the hall and were ready to go. By ten o’clock that night, cream-colored cardboard candleholders with blue lights were in every window, and a string of red cut-paper letters that said MERRY CHRISTMAS hung over all the doors. The tree in the corner was covered with satin balls of apple green and shiny ruby red and blue ones with white frosted stripes around them, silver tinsel, strings of popcorn and colored lights, and an angel with wings at the very top. A white sheet wrapped around the bottom was ready and waiting for presents.

As usual, Dorothy was the last one up and as she stood in the dark living room, the glow of the Christmas lights looked so pretty, she didn’t have the heart to turn them off and decided to leave them on all night.