My special Christmas Memory is from December 1944. World War II was creating shortages for everyone in the U.S. I recall rationing of gasoline and other necessities - even the rubber in elastic for our underwear; was made to button during the war. The winter was very dreary that year and our trip to Grandmother's and Granddaddy's house was to become the saddest Christmas I can recall. My Grandfather died suddenly, while participating in a Masonic Lodge meeting, about 8:45 p.m. on the evening of 20 December 1944. He was 74, but a tall, large, robust man, and to a child, the unthinkable had happened. My Mother was one of 6 sisters, so every holiday gathering was usually a time of laughter, huge meals requiring separate seatings for the children, "pallets" for sleeping on the floor, pranks performed by the 6 brothers-in-law, continuous teasing of my little (5', 100 lb), shy Grandmother who had always been the one in the family never to speak out about anything.. One of the favorite teases was the fact that her first child had been born 9 months and 15 minutes after her wedding!! Christmas 1944 was like no Christmas before or since. Grandmother did put up a Christmas tree "for the children", and put wrapped presents under it, but everyone avoided the living room where it stood. On Christmas morning, only the smallest children were interested in their presents. Her house was quiet for the first time in my life, and I attended my first funeral ever. The hometown Church always seemed very large to me, but it was overly full for the funeral. I recall the Masonic Lodge members with their lambskin aprons marching down the aisles after the service, coming to get the casket and removing it from the Church. I did not go to the cemetery until later, and don't think anyone else did but the Masons. My shy, little Grandmother read her Bible quietly, but did not cry and show her emotions like all her daughters did; I remember that. Members of the family shortly returned to their homes in distant towns; I now wonder about Grandmother staying there in her home, alone, as I suppose she did - as she continued to do until September 1976 when she passed away. I was nearly 10 on that strange Christmas, that was not really Christmas at all. Mary Alice ________________________________________ PeoplePC Online A better way to Internet http://www.peoplepc.com