More Christmas Pasts, the 1950s....

Our snow and freezing rain has turned to flurries but not before some fog and ice turned the roads slick and have canceled the schools that were still in session, some had already taken the Christmas break....I worked a double header junior high at St Marys last night, and off today, with another double dip over at Waynesfield tomorrow, before the Christmas weekend takes over.

Christmas the 1950s____

For some reason, as good as memory as I usually have, dating back to the time I stuck a hair pin in the wall outlet when I was 2 years old, ouch, that knocked me on my ass.  I don't have a total recall of any Christmas before our 2nd one in Venice, Florida, back in 1955.  Grandma Houseworth was staying with us at our humble abode located in the old tourist camp called Alston's Cottages, located in South Venice, some 4 miles down the Tamiami Trail, on Highway 41.

I never thought of us as poor, just average middle class, but in reality we didn't have a lot.  Mom still tells that when we moved from Scott, Ohio, to Florida in the late Summer of 54, Dad has $40 dollars in his wallet, and another $100 stashed in a pouch around his waist.  That, the 48 Buick, and the clothes on our backs is about what we had when we arrived in the Sunshine State.  I don't remember the Christmas of 1954, our first in Venice, but I do recall vividly the following one in our small 2 bedroom "house".

The tree was pretty decent, by south Florida standards, which were usually scrub pine trees.  Grandma, Wilda Waldron Houseworth, was staying with us for the winter, and the area under the tree was filled with plenty of toys and other items.  Maybe I remember this Christmas so well, is because I still have photographs from that year, and not so much from others....with the one exception of 1959.

On occasion we would have relatives and friends come down from the cold and snow of Ohio and spend the Christmas holiday in Venice.  The final year of the decade of the 50s, Bruce and Fredia Foust and son Alford, who was my best friend from back in Scott, came to visit us....as you can see from the photo of that Christmas morning, the tree was a table tree, and one of those scrub pines we were used to in Florida...but despite the ugly tree, we took in a pretty good haul.  I do not recall a bad Christmas in Venice, during the 1950s....poor we may have been, at least for the first few years in the Venice area, but, I never remember feeling so, especially at Christmas time.  The were without a doubt the favorite Christmases of my youth.

More tomorrow...back later>>>>

Photos-Top...the living room at our Alston's Cottage home on Christmas Morning 1955...note the Shell Book under the Chalkboard that was for sister Marty...that book was for Grandma Houseworth, and I still have it in my possession some 55 Christmases late, second photo.  An Ariel shot of Alstons, our place is "X"ed, if you double click.  Humble abode indeed, even for the fab 50s.  The living room on Christmas morning of 1959 on School Street and Pineland Avenue in Venice....left to right, me, Mike, Al Foust, in rear and Marty front.  The last photo is of Mike and me, with our XMas 1955 gifts...shooting bow and arrow and me with my hunting knife....how politically incorrect this would be today, it's a wonder how we survived out violent childhood...{insert large dose of sarcasm}