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| Ad that appeared in The Raymond News in December, 1961. |
There’s only been a few times since 1964 that I have not
been in Raymond, Illinois at Christmas. This year is one of them. It didn’t
sound like such a bad idea at first, but of course as I sit here in New Jersey
on Christmas Eve, I must admit that I’m feeling a little sad and a bit nostalgic.
Earlier today, I began looking through some email messages that Mom once sent to me about things that had happened “back in the day.” In one message,
she mentioned Christmas during the Vietnam era when both of my brothers were in the
Army and were deployed overseas:
"As time went on it was getting close to the holidays
again and we spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with NO BOYS. It was a sad time,
but we had dinner and tried to keep things normal."
By normal, she meant the Rockwellesque type of
Christmas that most of us who grew up in Raymond experienced. How many of you
remember:
- Getting dressed up and meeting Santa uptown under the Cottonwood Tree.
- The excitement around town when the volunteer fireman put up the town Christmas lights, including the display next to the old water tower on Rt. 48 with the reindeers pulling Santa and his sleigh.
- Attending various church Christmas programs.
- Christmas parties at school, coordinated by our “room mothers.”
- Saving money to go Christmas shopping at one of the many stores in Raymond.
- Christmas caroling and Christmas concerts.
- Browsing through the Sears Wish Book.
- Driving around town looking at Christmas lights. (Back then, you knew who lived in every single house and almost everyone had decorations.)
- Playing outside in the snow, including tying sleds to the back bumper of cars/trucks and going on a joy ride through the streets of Raymond.
Oh, my sweet hometown. Those were the good old days.
