More Holidays

You might think that August has no special holidays. And I guess according to the calendar you are right. But as a child I considered "Dutch Lagoon Day" the best holiday of the year. I'll bet you all that Christmas was my favorite. It definitely is now, but as a child it was "Dutch Lagoon Day".

Dutch Lagoon Day - For those that are not familiar with "Lagoon" it is an amusement park north of Salt Lake City. It was the "Disneyland" of Utah in my day. Once a year all those who had emigrated from Holland would reserve one of the large picnic areas at the park to gather, eat, and of course enjoy all of the fun things that the park offered. There were rides, including a roller coaster which by today's standard would be considered a "dwarf". But we thought it was scary and considered ourselves very brave if we rode on it. There was an enormous swimming pool (or so it seemed to me as a child) in which I would have drowned had it not been for an alert lifeguard. My favorite rides were the "Dodgems" or bumper cars as we call them today, and the "Fun House". In the Fun House were huge slides, some straight and some bumpy. You had to sit on a gunny sack provided at the slides to keep from getting "floor" burns. There were also huge turning barrels you could try to run through without falling down. The hardest barrels in which to stay upright were two connecting ones, each turning in opposite directions. If you fell down, it was very hard to get back on your feet without being rescued by and adult. Then there was the "saucer" - a large turning wood disc that slanted from the center down to the edges. The object was to try and stay on without sliding off. If you were lucky enough to find a position near the center of the disc you could usually stay on, but you didn't have a prayer if you were towards the edge. You could spend hours in the "Fun House" because there were so many things to do. Dutch Lagoon Day was an all-day affair, ending only when we were all exhausted. And that was because Grandma and Grandpa Bernards provided what seemed to be an endless supply of cash to pay for the rides and treats. I think this was their fun day as well as ours, just watching their happy grandchildren.

Labor Day - No real holiday for us. Even Dad had to work.

Halloween - We always celebrated Halloween like most other children. Before Mom got sick, she must have made costumes for Georgia and Claire because I've seen pictures of them in black crepe paper outfits carrying pumpkins. From the time I remember, Mother would put together costumes from things she could find around the house. There were no pre-made costumes like we see in the stores today. I'm sure we could not have afforded them if there had been. With Dad as a chaperone, we went trick or treating in the evening to houses on our street. Our favorite place was the home of the Vents at the bottom of our street because they always gave away whole five-cent candy bars - the ones we pay almost a dollar for today. We thought that they must be really rich to be able to afford such and expensive treat. The one Halloween that really turned out to be a bummer for me was a year that Halloween fell on a Sunday. Since nearly all of our neighbors were LDS, it was generally understood that children would not come around that night. Besides it had been snowing and very cold the whole weekend. Mother said we could go trick or treating on Monday night so we put on our snowsuits with hoods (our costume that year because of the cold) and a half mask. As we went from door to door almost everyone said, "Most of the children came Saturday night, and we are all out of candy." Some said, "Let me see what I can find", and that would turn out to be an apple or orange...just what we wanted! There was very little candy that Halloween.

Thanksgiving - Since television hadn't been invented yet, there were no Macy's Christmas Parade or football to watch. My family wouldn't have watched anyway. No one was into sports. But we did always have the traditional turkey dinner at one of my grandparent's home. We rotated each year. When it was at Grandma Bernards' place we always ate in the basement because their upstairs living area was so small. But that was OK because the basement was always spotless (remember my grandma was Dutch). My aunts, uncles and cousins from Dad's side of the family were usually there, but Grandma prepared all the food. She was a great cook and used only real butter in all her cooking which was a real treat and tasted so good. After the dinner the adults visited and the cousins all played. Grandma wouldn't even let anybody help with the clean-up. She would do it after everybody left.

Christmas - What child doesn't love Christmas? As a matter of fact, what adult doesn't love Christmas? It's definitely my favorite now, even though it can be the most busy and, at times, stressful time of the year. But the end results are worth it. Now it's all about family, but as a child it was all about Santa Claus. I was not so different. Mom worked hard at trying to make Christ the center of the holiday by including a little pageant with us and our cousins as part of the Christmas Eve celebration. As my sisters and I were the oldest cousins on both sides of our family, we always had to let the younger ones be the favorite angels, and Mary. We always ended up as the Three Wisemen. Being a girl, and loving "girly" things I wasn't too excited about being a wiseman year after year.
Christmas Eve was always spent with Mom's side of the family which included traditional Danish food. Sweet soup and ableskivers were what we always ate. I never liked the sweet soup (what kid likes cooked raisins and prunes which were part of this "soup", but l like ableskivers even today. I never slept at all on Christmas Eve which made for the longest night ever. By six a.m. we were throwing shoes against the wall to wake up our parents because we were not allowed to go out to see what Santa had brought without Mom and Dad. (Sound familiar, Kids?). By today's standards our Christmas's were pretty modest. Each of us got just one "big" gift (usually a doll for me because I loved dolls). I remember one doll I received that was the most beautiful one I had ever seen. She was life size and was dressed in a white dress with a pink satin coat and bonnet. Her soft body made her so cuddly. I was kind of bad that year because I found that doll BEFORE Christmas under my Mom's bed and played with her when Mom and Dad weren't home. I could hardly wait for Christmas that year. But not too much later I think I paid the price for cheating (at least that's how my guilty conscience felt)) when I accidentally scratched the cheek of that doll. I tried to cover it up by putting some pink nail polish over the scratches. That looked even worse, so I took nail polish remover and tried to take off the polish. Not only did the polish come off, but so did all the original paint. Now it really was a mess, and because I didn't want Mom to see what I had done, I hardly ever played with her again. Back to Christmas morning.
One year Dad made all three of us little doll beds which was an "extra" gift. Besides our "big" gift, there were always our well stuffed stockings with an orange in the toe (now my kids know where that tradition came from)and small practical gifts like socks, underwear, hair clips, new tooth brushes, etc. But there was always some candy, too. It was our tradition on Christmas morning to take our one big toy and go visit all of our friends on our street to see what Santa had brought them. Then if was off to Grandma Bernards' house for dinner which included traditional Dutch treats and to open gifts. I loved going there because the first thing Grandma would say as we walked in the door was, "Let's open presents before we eat." None of us objected to that because Grandma always gave us the most wonderful gifts...toys, not clothes. All three of us girls and our cousin, Carlene, always got the same thing. The one gift I still remember was a huge box of art supplies including a "zillion" crayons...every color under the sun. It was absolutely magnificent.
By the end of the day we were exhausted from no sleep the night before. But the day was always perfect in my mind. I never felt that any of our Christmases were less than wonderful. I guess a lot of the happy feeling of the season came from the family preparation before the big day, like decorating the house and the tree, making popcorn balls and cookies, walking down the snow covered sidewalks of downtown Salt Lake to shop for gifts for our parents and siblings, and just riding down Main Street in Salt Lake to see the lights. I loved that, and I loved the snow. I will never get used to the sunny Christmases in California. Then there were the music of Christmas. Of course I loved "Jingle Bells", "Up On the House Top" and "Rudolf", but even as a child, the traditional carols were my favorite, and still are.
I am still like a small child when Christmas season comes along. I still love the decorating, seeing all the beautiful lights, making and buying gifts, and baking. But the two things that make Christmas so special at this time in my life are 1) the time I take to reflect upon the great and wonderful gift God has given to us - His son, Jesus Christ and 2) My special family. You are what my life is all about. I love you.