4 Herald - Lantern - Dispatch 25 December '85

SHOP AT HOME IN CAPE MAY COUNTY =1

the COUNTRY Jmak Live Christmas Trees Spruce • Alberta • Colorado Blue Spruce • Norway Spruce • M7i;fe jgpBiiaEiiSS Pine • Douglass Fir N.pprejwgy' . Cut Trees Up To 12 Ft. Scotch Pine & Douglass Fir Hibiscus • Kalanchoe • Cyclanen • Poinsettias Live Wreaths — Dried Wreaths 6c Arrangements — Wide Assortment of Christmas Gifts, Lire House Plants, and Much More! 25% OFF ON ALL CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS Rt. 9 Swainton • Open Daily 10-5 '/j Mile So. of Avalon Blvd.. 3 Miles North of C.M.C.H. 465-2694

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STAR iNSTRUMENTALISTS — Six students at Lower Cape May Regional High School have been selected to perform in All South Jersey musical ensemble. Players, who passed exacting tests to gain places, are. from left front. Samantha Hunter, horn , and Rubi Rabino. contrabass clarinet; back row, Patrick O'Leary. bassist; Sandi Garrison, E-flat clarinet; Rosslyn de la Pena, mallet percussionist and Joanne Brandt, flautist.

A Magical Time Before The Shining Myths Drain

By JACK SMYTH ERMA — Christmases of the mind, Christmases of the heart. A break from school when you are young. A magical time before the shining myths drain out of life. A splendid, merry moment in the ancestral gloom of winter. When candles, incense, and words in Latin give evanescent things of the spirit the solidity of wood, the wetness of rain. A time of dread when the heart is arid and the mind poverty-stricken with the loss of faith. When being human seems too much of a chore, and all of life's bills are due WHEN I WAS A BOY growing up in the Tioga section of Philadelphia, the Depression was leaving its cold, gray mark. To the credit of my mother, my grandmother, and my grandfather's sister, the three women who raised me. I knew nothing of the privations that it brought. Especially at Christmas All of the stereotypes were in place. The Christmas turkey. The house festooned with wreaths and miniature green trees with tiny red berries. The search for a Christmas tree on the many corners where they were sold. The trip to Woolworth's 5 & 10 to buy tinsel. And toys. I can still remember a horsedrawn milk wagon with a tailgate you could » raise or lower, and the small crate of wooden milk bottles Two of my friends that I brought home to proudly show my latest favorite Christmas gifLs were not so fortunate. In good weather and bad they stood long hours on Germantown Avenue selling saw-dust they had dyed green for use on toy train platforms or placement under the family tree BI T CHRISTMAS really began with almonds, walnuts, raisins and currants in the )93(is My Aunt Jen. a thin, kindly spinster, always baked fruitcakes for Christmas. Weeks before, we would shop for the ingredients in the small, neighborhood stores that

lined Germantown Avenue, two blocks from where we lived. The stores kept a variety of nuts in bins just below the counter. At home. I would be allowed to crack them open. Another herald of the season would be the cleaning of the two large crystal chandeliers that hung in the living room and dining room. My grandmother would fill a large dishpan with warm water and ammonia, and 1 would climb up on an old wooden stepladder and hand the crystals down to her one by one. CHRISTMAS ALSO MEANT electric trains. A week before the happy day. the two big wall doors of the living room were pulled shut and mysterious preparations began behind them. Opening the doors on Christmas morning to find the locomotive and cars ready to roll through paper-mache tunnels are over wooden trestles year after year was the stuff that dreams are made of. My father died when I was five, so the Christmas stockings that I always found hanging from the wooden mantlepiece in my mother s bedroom belonged to her. and were silk. I rejoiced at their huge capacity. CHRISTM AS DINNER was laid on a lace tablecloth reserved for the occasion. Special silver napkin-holders appeared at each place, and an extra leaf was added to the large oak table to accommodate the many extra dishes of the feast. Christmas also meant a trip to the cemetery to place wreaths on family graves. The trip by car to the rear of West Laurel Hill Cemetery in those days was along a narrow. winding road that hung precariously above the Schuylkill River Like those Christmases. it has disappeared into the mists of time. Jack Smyth is a reporter for this newspaper

r- NEWS COUPON | Here's a coupon you can clip and save. If. at some time, you know of someone or some- | thing we should write a story about, let us know. | Include any details we may need (name, addresses, telephone numbers, etc.) and a brief | description . j Story idea; i | Same and Telephone: _____ n~r nil It JOSEPH ZILNIk. EDITOR HERALD AND LANTERN P.O. BOX AM CAPE MAY Cl\ HSE- NJ. «t!l« TELEPHONE AAiSESS