Written December 21, 1981
Here at Johnson Brothers Truckers we have several dogs that are turned loose in the fenced area around the warehouse at night to keep intruders out. This morning I heard them barking from their pens. Their “Boo, woo, woo, wah” reminded me of cold sunny winter days near Christmas down on my father’s farm in Rowan County many years ago. I suppose the dogs I remember are the ones owned by Frank Wright—or maybe Uncle Phar Litaker— down near Enochville School. I could hear them those miles away because sounds really carry a long way on clear crisp mornings.
On this date each year, December 21st, the sun reaches its farthest point to the South, making this the shortest day of the year, the day when winter officially begins. I have noted often before that it is difficult to judge the hour of the day by the sun when it is so far south. This phenomenon helped to make Christmas mystical for me in my childhood years. I would hear shouts, babies crying, and other familiar sounds from nearby farms, giving me a feeling of belonging to a community whose members were anticipating Christmas Day with all its celebrations and festivals honoring the birth of Christ.
I was thinking along these lines early this morning, and I pulled out my diary for 1942 from its resting place. I read it and reflected on our feelings, fears, and hopes of those war years. I was an eleventh-grade student at Landis High School and drove school bus No. 69. On December the tenth, another student bus driver, Richard London, was ill, so I took a load of his students in my bus after taking my regular load to school.
Thursday, December 10, 1942
Today was cloudy and fairly cold. Richard London has the mumps so I went and got his first load. We had military tactics out in the yard today. We did mostly reviewing for our exams which start tomorrow. I am getting along fine in typing. When I got home, I cut wood and tonight we went down to Mr. F. H. Kerr to practice for choir singing Sunday at the church. Uncle Phar came up and got a Christmas tree [a cedar tree from our farm].
Friday, December 11, 1942
Today was clear and cold early this morning but soon clouded up and the wind blew and it rained some this evening. I took an exam in physics which was pretty hard, but we only had an oral test in chemistry. NEWS Hubert Smith left for his camp at 9 o’clock tonight. Ray and Billie didn’t come up tonight.
Saturday, December 12, 1942
Today was clear and cold. It was foggy early this morning. I took Daddy down to Uncle Phar’s and they went rabbit hunting. I took Mama and Violet Mae to Kannapolis to do some shopping. I paid the piano payment and bought me several things for Christmas. I bought me a 71 cent pocket knife. I also bought me a white shirt and some 10-cent books at the dime store and also some black shoe polish. Our fire crackers came this evening that our club ordered Monday.
Sunday, December 13, 1942
Today was cloudy and windy and pretty cold. We had church as usual. We drew names to give each other gifts. This evening we practiced our Christmas play at church. Mr. Hugh Yost and a fellow named Johnson had a car wreck down at the forks [Saw Road and Enochville Ave]. Mr. Yost’s wife’s head went thru the windshield. The cars were damaged only slightly.
Monday, December 14, 1942
Today was cold and cloudy. Lois Outen has just gotten over the mumps and Carl Outen has them today. I made 93 on my physics exam and around a 100 on my chemistry exam. Mr. Frank Overcash came up this evening and we went to get him a Christmas tree. Ray and Bill came up and we divided out the fire crackers. We got around 275 fire crackers a piece. It cost us 50 cents a piece. Wayne Deal pulled me off this morning [my bus wouldn't start, a common occurrence because all motor vehicles used 6-volt electrical systems at the time].
Tuesday, December 15, 1942
Today was clear and cold. The sun shone bright for the first time in a long time today. Hugh Brown ran out of gas this morning and I took his load the rest of the way to school. No. 3 broke down and I had to get his last load. I made 98 on my typing exam and would have made 99 if I had told how to type a V instead of U. I cut fire wood this evening when I got home.
Wednesday, December 16, 1942
Today was cloudy and rainy this morning. I burned my lights on the bus this morn. It was the darkest morning I have seen this late. About 11:30 it began to SNOW and I mean snow. The ground was wet and it wouldn’t lay. We had chapel and saw a few skits of the senior play, “Miss Smarty.” It began to lay about 1:30 and we went home. About the time we got home it quit snowing. We cut and hauled a few loads of wood.
Thursday, December 17, 1942
Today was clear and cold. The snow is frozen very hard. I couldn’t get my bus started this morning, until Andrew and Gene and several others of the boys came over and helped push it off. I didn’t get started until 5 til nine and school starts at nine. We had a picture show at school, “Arizona Bound.” I didn’t see it because I was so late. This evening I went over by Uncle Clyde’s to Herman Ritchie’s and went to see the senior play. It was very fine.
Friday, December 18, 1942
Today was clear and warmer. We had a bus drivers meeting this morning. We are to eliminate all stops under 1/4 mile apart. We got out of school at 12 o’clock. I cut fire wood this evening. The gas situation is very critical. An order was sent out [at] noon today that no gasoline could be bought unless the tank of your container is less than 3 gallons. Only for emergencies and sickness can more gas be bought. I don’t quite understand it. We got out of school for our Christmas vacation today. We will go back on Jan. 4.
Saturday, December 19, 1942
Today was clear and fairly cold. Daddy went hunting this morning with Uncle Phar. Jackie, Paul, and I cut some wood and hauled it. This evening we went to town. I bought a gift for a boy in my Sunday School class. I bought 2 cakes for tomorrow’s dinner. They cost 19 cents apiece. Some cost as high as $3.05 apiece. I bought 1 lb. of pecans at 29 cents.
Sunday, December 20, 1942
Today was cloudy and cold. A damp cutting wind is coming from the north. I look for it to begin snowing long before dinner. We went to church and came home and ate dinner and when we started back for practice of our Christmas play, it began to sleet. It sleeted for 30 minutes or more then the sun came out, but it was so cold the sleet didn’t hardly melt. There is still some snow left from Wednesday’s snow. We went to Uncle Will’s church to the Christmas play at old Bethpage.
Monday, December 21, 1942
Today was clear and cold, very very cold. The temperature at 11 o’clock was 12 degrees. Last night and early this morning it was right around 0. It was 11:30 before we got the pump thawed up. [The well at the back porch of our house had a hand pump for getting water]. We cut firewood this evening. It really is cold weather. NEWS The Allies are doing fine in North Africa. We have almost complete control of the Solomons. The British have invaded Burma. Grady Bost (former school bus driver at Landis) was wounded in New Guinea near Australia.
Tuesday, December 22, 1942
Today was clear and cold part of the day but foggy and hazy the rest of the day. I stayed around the house and in the house most of the day. It was really cold. NEWS We got a long letter from Uncle Dannie [Mama's brother in the Navy] who is in New Caledonia near Australia. Duane is starting to get over his mumps and Bruce is taking them.
Wednesday, December 23, 1942
Today was foggy and cold in the morning with ice on the ground from last night’s rain which froze. Andrew Smith and I went rabbit hunting this morning. I got 1 rabbit. Ray & Bill and I went down to the Church. Cousin Claude took us down [to the church] in his wagon in which we took a Christmas tree and some cedar decorations. Ernest, Gene, Carl, and all went down to the creek; we really shot fire crackers.
Thursday, December 24, 1942
Today was foggy early in the morning. I took Daddy down to Uncle Pharr’s and brought the car back and Mama and I went to Kannapolis. I bought me a Hohner’s harmonica, the finest in the world. It is in the key of D. I also bought one in the key of C, a Sanglind harmonica. I bought some nuts and other things. I also bought a cake and a new Reader’s Digest. I went rabbit hunting but didn’t get any. I went with Ernest and Carl. We shot firecrackers this evening.
Friday, December 25, 1942
Today was cloudy and rainy. Most of the little ones got up so early there wasn’t much sleep for me. Jackie got his bugle and I got a pair of socks and a new diary for next year, also the 2 new harmonicas. I ate nuts, candy and cake all day. It rained as Ernest, Gene, Jackie, and I played Parcheesi. We went squirrel hunting and I got one squirrel. This evening I got a tie at the church; this was in my class where we exchanged names. We had our Christmas play. It was very fine. Bruce has the mumps today.
Saturday, December 26, 1942
Today was fairly cold and cloudy. Daddy went rabbit hunting today. We at home played games this morning and cut wood this evening and hauled one load of sand from the creek to put at the back door step. I listened to the radio this evening. NEWS I haven’t heard of a ship sinking off the coast for over a month. Admiral Darlan was assassinated Christmas eve. He had gone to Africa to join with the Allies, but he still didn’t have much favor with everyone. He would have been beaten in the forthcoming election anyway.
Sunday, December 27, 1942
Today was cloudy, misty and cold. The sun hasn’t shone since Thursday. We went to church as usual. We had communion at church today. This evening we played Parcheesi, we played six games. Ernest, myself and Jackie and Gene made up the teams. NEWS Our Lone Wolf Patrol joined the Open Road Pioneers Club and became the Lone Wolf Chapter. I received my Wilderness Trail book on Christmas Eve night.
I clearly remember cutting wood and how my brother Jack kept blowing the bugle over and over between pulling the cross-cut saw and splitting the blocks. I found my diary for 1942 so interesting that I almost forgot about the Christmas-only aspect. For instance, my diary says that on Feb. 21, 1942, the Gem Theatre in Kannapolis burned down. On March 1 Concordia Church burned down. Grandpa Horne was scheduled to come from Florida to visit us but Sunday, Sept. 13 entry says, “Grandpa didn’t come today because of financial difficulties.” Then on Sept. 16, “John Payne, Jane Wyman, and Jinx Faulkenberg arrived in Kannapolis a little after 10 o’clock today and sold war bonds.”
Well, to get back to Christmas, I think the 1935 Christmas is the first one I can remember well, and that is when Mom went to Florida with Uncle Earl and family, and Dad kept me and my brothers at the farm. That year it snowed before Christmas, and there are some pictures of us made some time that season. I remember the cows got loose and made some tracks in the snow near the front porch, and Dad speculated to some of my younger brothers whether these were Santa Claus’ reindeer tracks on Christmas morning. I remember that year I got a baseball glove, and we pitched some ball in the snow.
One thing about Mom and Dad at Christmas, if they possibly could, they made sure we had some special things to eat. Our “brown bags” always contained an orange, apple, pecans, brazil nuts, English walnuts, and some of that colorful hard candy or candy sticks.
Dad always had a special feeling for the farm animals at Christmas time. I remember we took pitchforks and raked up pine needles and leaves especially to make the hogs a warmer place to bed down. And Dad would give the horses and cows an extra Karo syrup can of ground feed on Christmas Eve night. This feed had molasses in it and even smelled like a Christmas treat. He would also put some extra pine boughs over the cracks around the hog pens, or give the horses some oats.
And Mama—I don’t know how she worked in the dark. But I remember lying awake in the dark in the middle room and listening to her sort out the various brown paper sacks that were set aside for each of us near the fire place, before the bathroom was built there. After hearing the whispering she did to Mack, and the crackling of paper and bumping around, I would go to sleep with a smile on my face, knowing that in the morning about 5 a.m. I would hear more crackling sounds as Bruce, or Duane, or Carol and the others began to try to find their Santa Claus sack, and finally Mom would light the lamp and build up the fire in the fireplace, and I would begin to hear the sounds of harmonicas, bells, ukeleles, cap busters, or squeals as the entire household joined in the happiness of Christmas morning. Then Jack, Paul, and I would run down the road toward Uncle Will’s shooting firecrackers, to be met by Ernest, Gene, and Carl.
Mom could take blackberries and walnuts and make the finest tasting fruit cake you ever tasted. The blackberry juice made it more moist than Claxton or Benson fruit cakes. I remember very clearly the morning Mom tried to get breakfast while Jack serenaded us with his new ukelele.
And in those days before electricity came to our house, it really was “Silent Night, Holy Night.” I remember that I had to walk all the way around Claude Smith’s house to see the pale light of a kerosene lamp glowing from the front room window and know that someone was still up. When everyone was in bed, there wasn’t any night light, except the moon. Even the fire in the fireplace was allowed to die down, unless you happened to have a very safe fire screen which most of us did not.
Merry Christmas, LBS.
Tags: 1942, Christmas, driving a school bus, firecrackers, gifts, high school exams, hunting rabbits, military drill in high school
