Seniors at the Trigg County Seniors Center can be seen reflected on this ornament on the center's Christmas tree. The seniors were enjoying a visit from the Trigg County Middle School Choir.
Like other recent hot gifts of Christmases past — like Tickle-Me Elmo or Furby — this year’s must-haves are highly sophisticated electrical devices, sophistication that comes at a price.
Seniors at the Trigg County Senior Citizens Center remember their own Christmases much differently than today’s children will.
Having just watched a performance by the Trigg County Middle School Choir Wednesday, Dec. 14, seniors at the Trigg County Seniors Citizens Center remembered their own Christmas Pasts with The Cadiz Record.
Together, they paint a picture of a more modest, less glitzy Christmas. They remember a Christmas not so pre-packaged, when trees were harvested from the wild and decorated with strings of popcorn and scrap tinfoil.
“We didn’t have a lot, but we enjoyed what we had,” said Corine Burgess.
Like so many from her generation, Corine was the daughter of a farmer and a quote-unquote housewife.
“We raised what we ate and ate what we raised,” she said.
“It was hard to even have a Christmas,” said Corine, the oldest of eight children.
She remembers gifts of fruit and baby dolls and of Old Maid cards.
She also remembers those things she asked for in vain, like a “little guitar” and a singing Santa she once saw at a department store.
“I thought Santa Claus ought to bring that to me, but he didn’t,” she said.
Corine still remembers her favorite gift — a little red purse, with a fastener on top.
“I didn’t expect to get it,” she said. “I thought I was really fixed up when I got that purse.”
For the rest of this article, please see this week's edition of The Cadiz Record.
