My Old Home Place on our farm in Kentucky
Childhood Christmas Memories!
My Childhood Home in Lewis County, Kentucky
Looking back to when I was a young girl, I can now say that growing up on a farm in Kentucky was an awesome privilege! Yes we worked very hard, but we also were able to play hard as well. We never had lots of money, but never went without! I had two of the most dedicated and hard-working parents and five sisters! Dad worked from sun up until sundown either on the farm or in construction building many roads in the tri-state area! Mom worked as hard if not harder at times! My mother was an awesome cook! She could cook a meal faster than anyone I know even to this day that was mouth-watering delicious! She was also a seamstress, although she would never call herself one! She made clothing for her daughters, our neighbors and cousins. She also made handmade quilts and even designed curtains and bedspreads, but she would simply say that she was someone who tried to sew! Mom could look at something and make it, her talent was amazing. I also had wonderful Grandparents, many Aunts and Uncles, and cousins that lived close to us, so of course we visited one another’s homes often! Life was wonderful and honestly, it was always exciting! We could always find something to do, we were never bored!
As I reminisce my childhood, I wanted to focus on Christmas as we are presently in the wonderful Christmas Season! As stated before we grew up on a farm where we raised tobacco, which was one of the main cash crops for Kentucky or at least the part of Kentucky where I grew up. We not only raised or grew tobacco on our farm, but my Dad would lease other tobacco fields so that we raised huge crops every year. It was back-breaking work because in order to grow a crop of tobacco it was practically a yearlong job. Everyone in the family had to do their part, yes even me as I was the baby of the family! However, at the end of the year, once the crop was sold the rewards of taking the tobacco to the warehouses to be sold were so exciting as it was usually always around Christmas time! My Dad was a generous man, and he always paid his workers well, yes even his Daughters! He would give every one of us girls a pretty hefty amount or at least it seemed it was for that period of time. We were bright-eyed as he sat at the kitchen table and counted stacks of money. We waited in anticipation to see what we would receive out of that wonderful stack! Dad and my Mom would smile with great pleasure as he handed each of us our amount! We beamed with joy as we reached out our hands to receive the fruits of our hard-earned labor!
I am always amazed as I look back at how such a small amount compared to today’s monies went so very far! It was always enough and then some! I was always able to buy everyone in my family something and still manage to have change left for me to put in my little change purse until I could get to our little general store down the road to buy penny candy! As a family, we had the best time going Christmas shopping as normally we only went to a big Department store in a city a couple of times a year. We went once in the fall to buy shoes, coats, and school supplies and fabric as Mom made most of our school clothes! Then of course, we went at Christmas time! We had a department store that has long since gone out of business in our neck of the woods, called Harts! We would all pile in the car for the long ride to travel across the Ohio River to Portsmouth, Ohio. It usually took about an hour and a half but for me it seemed like a longer journey! Once we arrived at Harts Department Store, we usually paired off, an older sister with a younger one and were turned loose to shop the store! The excitement of having money to buy everyone a gift in the family was above measure! It was even more fun as we had to try to avoid running into one another in the store to keep our gifts our secret finds! Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have my family all back in that department store one more time! It was a precious time and I was so very blessed to have been a part of such a loving family!
Good memories are such blessings from the Lord. I try to recall the sentiments behind those wonderful memories as I want to pass on great memories to my own children for Christmas. My hope for them is that in the future when they celebrate Christmas with my grandchildren or even great-grandchildren that they too will have touching Christmas memories that they can value and share! I hope that you will have the same!
Merry Christmas from my home which is now in Douglasville, Georgia to yours wherever you may be! May you have a wonderful joy filled Season of Celebrating and creating life long memories!
Authorartistmomof2 
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