A Christmas Story

      More Letters From Paradise
         A Christmas Story
The following is a Christmas story I wrote several years ago. I always felt that it should be published. When we first moved here I entered the story in a contest being held by our local newspaper. Of course I didn't even gain any mention. I was so naive. The story should have had a Hawaiian theme. What did people here know about snow? Anyway here it is, and at least I will know that the story will be there somewhere in the internet cloud.
            One Other Christmas

"I'll bet you, you can't." "I'll bet you I can." "Can't." "Can too." Three snowballs flew across the street and spattered on the building. The target of the three snowballs was a three story painting of a giant on the wall of the Super Giant Supermarket. More specifically, the genitals of the giant. "Told  you so!"

It was December, 1946, and we were on our way home from school. My two best friends who were with me were Dave and Richard. Dave was wearing his usual gray fur hat with ear flaps, which I always thought made him look silly, but I never dared to say so. He had on his motorcycle boots which he always wore, winter or summer. I enjoyed seeing him run through the deep snow. Rich, on the other hand, was without any outstanding features. He was wearing a knit stocking cap, the same as me. He was very blonde, and Dave had dark hair with bushy eyebrows.

"What do you want for Christmas?" Rich asked."I want a gun," Dave said. He could probably have a gun, as his father owned a dress store and had a farm outside of town too. Rich wanted a bicycle, and I wanted a chemistry set. It was just wishful thinking on my part. I knew that there wasn't a chance in a million of getting a chemistry set. Rich's father was Superintendent of schools. My father was going to college on the G.I. Bill, and working for Jim, the Greek at his shoe repair shop. My mother was teaching school. I had been reminded many times that money was tight, and not to expect much.The whole household had been told many times over, about a chemistry set.
At the end of the block, we parted company with a few friendly snowballs thrown at each other.

My house was just a block from downtown and the Super Giant Supermarket. It stood on the corner across from the Methodist Church and Rogers Funeral Home. Next door was the home of a dentist. Between both houses was an old brick sided well with with lattice sides.

Our house was an old two story with a front porch, and in winter there was a small enclosure which was designed to help keep out the cold when the front door was opened. I thought it looked like a fishing shanty. Attached to the rear of the house was a long shed. It was one of those features you sometimes still see in houses in New England.This shed was meant to be a place for a horse, his feed and wagon, and wood for the kitchen stove.

Inside the house were some wonderful features. There were large double doors leading to a room which had once been the parlor. In the dining room there was a corner china cabinet, and behind a door in the wall was a dumb waiter. A dumb waiter was a small elevator which in the days before refrigeration, food could be sent down into the basement to be kept cool. A trap door in the dining room floor led down into the stone-walled basement. The kitchen had numerous cupboards.

A steep set of stairs led to several rooms above. My parents rented two of these rooms to two G.I. students. I thought it was odd that they slept on wood surplus army beds. The also used the single bathroom located off the kitchen, and they took their meals out. Friday nights however, there was always a gathering of these men and some of their friends. My mother would have baked a cake, and cards were played. It was then that I heard war stories and risqué jokes.

But now, getting back to the business of the chemistry set. My sister become sick and the doctor was called. I didn't understand what the doctor meant when he said that we would have to be quarantined. But I soon learned, when a man from the County Health Department arrived and tacked a red sign on the front door. It was Scarlet Fever. Not to be able to go out to see my friends! Missing school was no hardship. The absolute worst thing about being quarantined was that there was no way to get presents. How can you shop when you couldn't leave the house? This was the richest time of year for presents. Only recently I had visited the dump behind the "Gamble" store, and rescued two boats they couldn't use. The big plastic one needed a wind-up key, but pliers worked just fine. The other small boat made circuits around the bathtub powered by baking soda and vinegar.

The enforced isolation continued for some time, broken only by paper bags of groceries left outside the front door, and the arrival of the mail. I amused myself by putting Mike,our cat in the dumb waiter, and sending him up and down to the basement. When he escaped, I built frontier forts of Lincoln Logs, or played with lead soldiers.These I had cast into molds from a coffee can on the kitchen stove. The living room had a large book case and so I spent hours reading and listening to the radio. "Captain Midnight and the Secret Squadron" sent messages I could decode with the decoder my mother had sent for. The "Lone Ranger" was always exciting.

A Christmas tree was delivered and set up. My parents decided that it should be strung with blue lights. I disagreed, and would have preferred many colored lights. Once the tree was set up, I began to despair even more.

Then as it always does, it was Christmas eve. My parents belonged to the school that said it was alright to open presents on Christmas eve. I agreed totally! The wide wood doors were shut while Santa set about his work. After what seemed an eternity, the doors were swung open, and there under the blue lighted tree was a" Gilbert" metal,blue painted chemistry set! With a nod towards my sister's new doll, I began a minute investigation of the contents of the blue cabinet, with its many bottles and test tubes. It became a Christmas to remember. I learned years later that those two G.I. boarders had bought the chemistry set and my sister's doll.
              End
     Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka

             Grant