By Mary (Lehr) Eaton, daughter*
*relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Two perspectives of the same situation
Cathy’s birthday was December 14th. All during her “growing up” years, I took special care in not beginning Christmas plans until after we celebrated Cathy’s birthday. About three years ago during a family gathering this subject arose – I explained my reason for the Christmas delay. Cathy gave me her impish grin and said, “I thought you were not allowing my birthday to “mix” with Christmas, because you were afraid the other kids would think I was special.” And so – since she was special I will “mix” her with Christmas this year.
Back: Jim Eaton, Jim Eaton, Jr., Mary (Lehr) Eaton 1954
Remembering Christmas at Skelly Number 2
Mary’s grandson, A.J., had a family history assignment in fifth grade. Below is an email thread about a Christmas memory.
April 15, 2004, A.J.:
I would like you to tell me about your life when you were my age, 12. What types of family traditions were celebrated for holidays? Choose your favorite.
April 18, 2004, Mary:
Of course, my favorite holiday was and is Christmas. We did it all! Our tree was pretty big and covered with a collection of things. The number of presents grew as the holiday neared. We loved to guess what was in all the packages while we ate our traditional Christmas Eve , oyster stew and mother’s homemade pie. Christmas morning we all went to mass together. Later as we got older, we were allowed to go to midnight mass, this was a real adventure for us.
By Deb (Lehr) McGraw, granddaughter*
*relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
One of my Christmas memories is the nativity that Grandma & Grandad Lehr used to put up every Christmas. My parents bought it for them at the dime store, as you can see by the original box, they paid $1.85 for it. I have put it up every year, it has become part of our holiday tradition.
I also remember Grandma’s divinity that she made & I loved her carrot cookies.
Other memories are cousins gift exchange, getting handmade pajama with little tags sewn in that read “ made especially for you by Grandma “. Sometimes she would do tatting on pillowcases for us, seems like she also would crochet our knit slippers or booties.
Christmas stories
By Joe Eaton, grandson*
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
My Christmas memories are flash photo memories. I probably cannot nail down specific years but approximate times.
One of the earliest memories, and unfortunately it is crystal clear, happened at 720 N. Denver when I was about seven. We were always on a tight budget, especially after the flood. That being said, dad had just bought new carpet for the living room. We were decorating the windows with Johnson and Johnson’s liquid wax and stencils. The liquid wax was in two or three small dishes on a straight back chair. We were playing some game and I came running through the room and you guessed it, I hit the chair and the dishes went flying up and all over the new carpet. I was crushed. Went to bed crying all night. I think the carpet was stained until we moved to the country.
A good Christmas was at the farm probably around 1959. I or we boys got plastic army men and airplanes. Man, the wars we fought. For years we played with them and the Lincoln Logs with which we built the forts. One 4th of July I think it was cousin, Nick Badwey [Jr.] and I took the army men out to under the Turnpike bridge at Oil Hill and made little fox holes and placed Black Cat firecrackers in each fox hole. We put two glass gallon jugs of gasoline up above on the slope. We shot our bb guns at the army men then shot each of the gas jugs and let the gas flow down into the fox holes. Then we took a Roman candle and lit the gas which lit the fire crackers and blew up the fox holes. I digress, but the point being is that we retired the army men some 8 or 9 years after Christmas.
I recall the Christmas Jim got his horse. I remember the Christmas he got his .22 rifle. I guess I had a hard time remembering that I was 5 years younger and not as ready as I thought I was for the same presents.
The classic of all was the Christmas we had on North High at the folks when dad gave Chris a clip on necktie. Chris was only 3 or 4 as I recall. He opened the box and I think he thought it was his only Christmas present. He took the tie and shook it, stomped around saying ” I don’t want a tie! Who buys a tie for a kid! Stupid tie! Granddad Jim was laughing so hard he couldn’t stop. I know Chris is tired of hearing this story but it is a family treasure.
Another special Christmas was when Rachael (she was probably 7 or 8) and I took the China cabinet that Robby and I rebuilt to Enid to the folks. Somehow, I acquired it from [sister] Cathy in one of her moves. Actually, probably saved it from the dump. It was Grandma Eat’s. At one point it ended up at Grandma Lehr’s. I have a picture of Grandma Lehr, Susan and me (before we were married) at Grandma’s with the hutch in the background. Then Cathy got it. Cathy had “antiqued” it with a cream-colored base coat covered with black antiquing. I spent a year striping it with Susan’s dad, Robby, replaced some broken boards, sanded and refinished the piece. I took out the leaded glass windows and took them to my friend, Wayne Willett’s, workshop and taped a design on each glass then sandblasted them and reinstalled them. I think they enjoyed it for many years until mom died and I reclaimed it.
We have had many great family Christmas gatherings at our house since the kids grew older. We had Susan’s side of the family for years at our house. I also remember Christmas at the folks at the old Auer place north of town and Christmas at Jim and Pam’s in KC.
Since we moved to the farm we’ve had some great times and photo ops. You see each Christmas I want a group picture but weather, sickness, etc. has in recent years prohibited a complete family picture. One Christmas years ago we all dressed in red sweatshirts and I think Steve Funk came over and snapped the shot for us under the pergola on Jamaica Street.
Many more memories will probably surface after I sign off but that’s the price of old age. So, from Cole Turkey Creek Farm. Signing off for Christmas 2023.
3 of 7
By Maggie (Eaton) Gurley, granddaughter*
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Leht
One Christmas season, many moons ago, mom got tired of us asking her what we were getting for Christmas. Plus, no matter where she tried to hide the gifts, it seemed we always found them. Some of us would going “a hunt’n” for gifts and would open them (but we always rewrapped for her lol [laughing out loud]), so she came up with a brilliant idea.
One Christmas, Mom secretly assigned a number to each of us. Then she just put a number on the name tags of the gifts she had wrapped. We had no idea what our special number was, so you can imagine how very frustrated we were.
Come Christmas morning, mom forgot whose number was assigned to what gift! Needless to say we ended up opening all the gifts, showing them to mom and she told us whose gift we were holding.
I thought it was pretty funny, I don’t think mom did though!
By Mark Eaton, grandson*
*relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Our family was living in Phillipsburg, Kansas in the early ‘80’s. I was a branch manager of the local savings bank and Jacque had her dance studio teaching “step, ball, change” to the young ladies of north central Kansas. Gus had not come along yet so it was just Jacque, Jeb, Tiffany and me.
Being so far off the beaten path of civilization, we had few family visitors and were glad to have Roger and Marcia come for Christmas. Roger was smaller than me but had some wrestling experience in high school. He was onery. While doing our evening banter I noticed that he wasn’t feeling his usual self. This was my opportunity. I picked just the right time to take him down and show him that I could wrestle also. He was stronger than I anticipated but, nevertheless, I prevailed (much to my surprise).
Nothing much else was memorial during the visit but I learned that when he got home to EL Dorado, he was admitted to the hospital with a burst appendix. He blames me but I deny being the cause. Brother Joe was “friends” with Wild Gerald, the anesthetist working on Roger in surgery. He came out and told Joe to get out his good suit as Roger probably wasn’t going to make it. Gerald always had a great bedside manner.
The end all is that Roger came through the surgery with little side effects. He can no longer drink alcohol but that’s ok. He remains a little less onery as he ages.
By Jim Eaton, Jr., grandson*
*relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Early Christmas morning when I was about 12, I was awakened by my parents. They hurried me to get dressed. This was all very strange. Then they took me outside for my gift. There was Bucky Fuller [horse and kid wrangler] holding a saddled buckskin horse – Buck. I was so excited, I jumped on and took off. When I returned much later, I could not tell them I was gone so long because I could not get him to stop!
Buck was much taller than the Shetland ponies, and I was rather short at the time. Therefore, I had to improvise how I saddled him. I usually had to lead him to some structure on which I could climb to properly place his bridle and lift the saddle onto his back.
By Roger Eaton, grandson*
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Favorite Christmas Book – Santa’s Rocket sleigh
My favorite Christmas book was Santa’s Rocket Sleigh, 1957. I was fortunate to have several siblings who could read it to me. Even though I heard it repeatedly, I never got tired of it. I must have known then, “When you find something you like, stick with it.”
I was surprised when Marcia purchased a copy of it for our first child, A.J. When I saw the book, I explained that it was my favorite Christmas book. It became one of his favorites, too.
Grandma Lehr’s Christmas Party
As a child, our extended family had a large Christmas party at Grandma Lehr’s house. It was always on Christmas Eve. Her house was two blocks from ours. We walked to Grandma’s house for the party – regardless of the weather conditions. She had a small two-bedroom house that was filled with relatives. Peppermint candy canes decorated her tree. There was one for each grandchild. At that time there would have been about twenty-five candy canes on the tree.
It was always a great time. Some of our relatives would stay up and attend the midnight mass at St. John’s Church.
After the party, we walked home. Our dad would let us open one present. Our living room was filled with gifts. There were nine of us and each person would receive several gifts, so there were a lot of packages under the tree. I enjoyed arranging the packages under the tree.
Pralines from Aunt Hazel
I recall receiving a package in the mail from our Aunt Hazel. It would arrive a week before Christmas. The first one that I can recall is our last Christmas in the “stone house”. That would have been 1960 or 1961.
1720 West Central, El Dorado, Kansas. This house was made of limestone blocks and nicknamed the Stone House.
We weren’t allowed to open the package. Aunt Hazel, my dad’s sister, was a nurse and lived in Austin, Texas. That is the home of Lammes Candies. One of their signature candies is pecan pralines. Every Christmas, Aunt Hazel would send a large box of pralines. My dad rarely ate candy, but this was his favorite treat. He would open the box after all of the other packages had been opened. After each person in the family got a praline, he would hide the box. Working as many hours as he did, left us plenty of time to find the pralines.
My brother Jim is pretty good about carrying on this tradition, by sending his siblings a box of pralines each Christmas.
Off to the Races
One Christmas morning, the family assembled in the living room to exchange gifts. Mark and Joe were glaringly absent. They woke up before everyone else and found a race car set under the tree – some of Santa’s gifts were not wrapped. Eagerly, they had assembled it in their bedroom. When they were discovered, our dad was not happy. The Christmas gift exchange nearly ended before it began.
Christmas Tree Sales
My dad’s grocery stores were my playgrounds. December was a special time at the stores. He sold Christmas trees in the parking lot. That created an instant forest to explore.
It was always a challenge to my mother to get me to stand still long enough to take a photo. After they took this photo, my sister, Cathy, took Maggie and me to a movie. That was a real treat in 1963.
Farm and Home shopping
Bill Rex made his fortune from oil production in Butler County, Kansas. He opened a couple businesses, too. One of them was Farm and Home. It was located in downtown El Dorado, Kansas. The store had a little bit of everything; china, pots and pans, nuts and bolts, tools, bicycles and most importantly a toy section. As an adult, I learned that Bill Rex had helped my dad financially when one of my dad’s grocery stores was ruined by a flood. So, we did a lot of our shopping at Farm and Home.
In her later years, my mother shared some of her memories with Marcia. One of them was her Christmas shopping method. Shopping for seven children took some ingenuity. My mother would take the younger kids on errands. In early December her errands included a stop at Farm and Home. My siblings and I went straight for the toy section, while our mother did her shopping. We assumed that she was shopping, but she was observing the toys that attracted us. Days later she would make a solo trip to Farm and Home and purchase the toys that had captured our attention.
Christmas BAR-B-QUE deliveries
My dad had a Bar-B-Que pit. It was a large smoker made of concrete blocks and heavy metal doors. The doors had counterweights to assist in opening. I would tag along with him when he checked the fire and meat temperatures. I was about four years old, then. He didn’t say a word when it was time to leave the grocery store and check on the meats. All he did was make eye contact, point his index finger to the ground and I knew what to do. I grabbed his finger, which seemed as big as a utility pole, and we would head to the smokehouse. It was only a few steps north of the grocery store. When he opened the smoke chamber it would full the smokehouse with smoke. I didn’t like that part!
During the Christmas season, he would smoke meats as gifts to business contacts. When they reached the appropriate temperature, he wrapped them in foil and a ribbon. My mother would drive around to deliver the smoked meats. When she would arrive at a house, I would run the package to the front door and present the gifts. Initially I was pretty shy, but the people receiving the gifts were wildly ecstatic. That made it fun. When Matt received his driver’s license, he drove and I delivered.
Merry Mary Christmas
My dad was pretty creative. When he had a creative solution, he charged ahead without a doubt or second thought. One Christmas, he was struck with the idea of a Merry Mary Christmas theme. Mary was my mother’s name. It was likely triggered by his appreciation of her support following his first heart attack. His plan was to have all the men prepare, serve and clean-up the meals. He also wanted the gift exchange to be homemade gifts. He was giddy about this plan!
I don’t recall my assignment, but my brothers and I were assigned tasks. Someone was assigned to get a cake, I do remember that much. It went well. Everyone had their assignment and did their part.
Christmas With Madame Alexander
By Meg (Badwey) Conger, granddaughter*
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Nearly every Christmas, Mom would gift to me a doll by Madame Alexander. After a few years I came to expect a doll but there were so many different dolls it made collecting them a lot of fun.
While I had many dolls representing different countries and dressed in native attire (for example, my Netherlands dolls had little wooden shoes), my favorite were the dolls of the six First Ladies of our country. Their clothes were fashioned of beautiful fabrics; Martha Washington’s even had gold threads in it. Louisa Adams was stunning in white satin, her blonde hair in a sophisticated updo. All were gorgeous.
The dolls were so well made, I still had them up until a few years ago. I sold them in our estate sale when we moved out of our Kansas City home. I hope they are giving the new little girl or perhaps doll collector who has them as much joy as they gave me.
Cabbage Patch Crusade
By Amy (Leavitt) Smith, granddaughter*
With Joan (Lehr) Lewis, daughter* and Tori (Smith) Hoke, great granddaughters*
*Relation to Andy and or Flora Lehr
Amy was visiting her cousin, Celia (Lewis) Janousek, in Nebraska, and spent some time with Celia’s mother, Joan Lewis. They talked about a Christmas log ago when Tori and Jessie Smith asked Santa for Cabbage Patch dolls. They were trendy Christmas presents beginning in 1983. The supply did not support the demand for these special dolls.
Ruth and Charlie Smith, Tori and Jessie’s grandparents, joined in the quest to obtain the coveted dolls. But the Smiths lived in Knoxville, Iowa. With a population of less than 4,000, there were no stores that carried the highly demanded dolls. They enlisted the help of Ruth’s (twin) sister, Joan Lewis, to help find a couple of dolls. The Lewis family lived in Denver, Colorado – a city with major retail stores. There was no internet for online purchasing. If you wanted a doll, you had to be in the store at the time they had stock. Joan and Wayne struck gold and found two Cabbage Patch dolls. Below is Joan’s memory of that Christmas adventure.
Links to more about the Cabbage Patch craze:
10 Adorable Facts About Cabbage Patch Kids
From 1983: Demand for Cabbage Patch Kids causes chaos in stores across America