I wrote to my JOBE cousins and ask that they send me a story for our Christmas Memories, I got this one from Linda. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ajobebrown/jobe/letters_ch_copple_myers.html (d/o Mavis Hutton and Everett Powers, gd/o Eleanor Copple and Bob Hutton, gt gd/o William Copple and Almira Heaviland and gg gd/o Sarah Ann Jobe and John A Copple Sr.) Christmas in ArizonaBy Linda (Powers) Beason, December 2004 The Christmas I am going to tell you about happened sixty years ago. I find that fact alone hard to believe that I could remember a Christmas that happened that long ago. Could I get getting old? This Christmas may have been memorable to me because it was so different from any other Christmas in my memory. Christmas of 1944 I was almost 6 years old and my little brother, Bobby, was almost 5 years old. It was during WW II and our father was working in a defense plant in Phoenix, Arizona. He had a serious leg injury as a child and because of this he was not drafted into the army. He was, however, able to work on security and defense plant jobs. So here we were, living in a small apartment in a big city, a far cry from the small Kansas town of Sedan. Our mother said it didn�t seem much like Christmas with the warm, sunny days and palm trees everywhere. At night we covered our windows and when the sirens went off we turned out every light. They called this a �black out.� It was as dark as pitch in the room where we all four slept. In my cot at the foot of my parents� bed I was absolutely terrified. Daddy would whistle tunes, popular songs of the day and Christmas songs. I would try and guess the songs, like in �Name that Tune�. I am still good at this game. This made a fun time out of a frightening event. We had a car, but because of shortages of gasoline and tires, we didn�t drive much. We walked to the grocery store often. As we walked we passed a small jewelry store. We gazed at the window displays and Daddy asked Mother what she liked best in the window. She had her eye on a brush, comb and mirror, a �dresser set� it was called. I remember of wishing she could have it, probably so I could enjoy it as well. One day, a few year before Christmas, Daddy was taking care of us while Mother was out. He brought out a large box from the jewelry store and it was the lovely dresser set. The brush was especially nice with a mirrored back; a lovely comb and two-sided mirror completed the set. All were encrusted with what I thought then were diamonds. We were amazed to have this beautiful set on our own house. Daddy had the idea to repack the set in a smaller box so Mother would never guess what it was. He cut the box down, wrapped it all back up in Christmas wrapping and swore both Bobby and I to secrecy. When Mother came home the first words out of Bobby�s mouth were �I�m no telling you what it is, but the brush has a mirror on the back.� Now there was no secret, but Mother and Daddy laughed and laughed. From that time, whenever someone in the family would give up a secret someone else would say, �The brush has a mirror on the back.� Time passed, things changed. My mother and father were divorced. Mother, Bobby and I moved back to Sedan, Kansas; our father stayed in Arizona. I still remember that last Christmas we were together and all the laughter over the �hint� Bobby gave Mother about her Christmas give. Merry Christmas! Linda Powers Beason