Christmas at the Orphanage

Christmas time at the home was always a special time for the kids. some of the service clubs like the Lions, or the Kinsmen, would put on a party in the Billiard room bringing in movies and cartoons which they loved and a stocking filled with candy, nuts, fruit, popcorn balls, and candy canes, and a gift to be given out by Santa. The one party, really the best, the best and most popular amongst the children was one put on by the Good Sheppard Church in Kitchener, to which we had to be bused, perhaps increasing the anticipation. There would be a Christmas pageant put on and Santa would come with gifts and another big stocking for everyone. The children would go home and remain on a high for weeks. One minor problem was that the building was a little porous, and the squirrels, of which there seemed to be hundreds, could get in, and if you weren't careful in securing your treasure, you shared it with the squirrels. You would come home from school, or being away for a while, and find a trail of nuts, leading to a partly open window or the attic. The squirrels got so bad that Clarence started trapping, and skinning them, and using the meat at home, or so we thought, in any event I watched Clarence skin a squirrel one day and became violently sick and threw up.

Clarence disappeared one time for a week or so, and when he returned he was married. He had gone to Pennsylvania cot married and returned with a wife, and moved into a house on Erb St. not far from the home. It seemed a rather clinical arrangement to me, but she was a very nice lady, and they seemed well suited for each other. Clarence's wife was a wonderful cook, baking cookies, cakes, and her own bread and when they had me over she would cut off a thick slice of home made bread, and spread it with her own home made preserves, strawberry jam, or blueberry jam, and to think these pleasures could not be bought. We never saw my mother except for one time she did turn up in the summer and visit us, but she did send a parcel with gifts each Christmas, and one year it was a Barbara Anne Scott doll for Rosemary, and BB guns for Max and myself. Max and I set up big cardboard boxes in the attic and pretended we were in tanks and shot at each other through a small hole in the box. One time I shot and hit Max on the bridge of his nose right between the eyes, it was a miracle I never put his eye out, which we realized and stopped that activity. In the winter someone would arrange for a horse and wagon to come in and take the kids for a sleigh ride, which the kids loved. At other times people with cars would come and take the kids to a big hill for toboggan rides near Baden. It seemed they would try to keep the kids busy with activities all winter.