LETTERS TO SANTA
The Sears Christmas Wish Book had come. Each page - with toys and such - carefully scrutinized. Then our eldest daughter brought out paper and pens and would begin her letter to Santa and then proceeded to help her sister Sharnie. Lois was quite advanced and often "played school" with Sharon and the
neighbor girls, and so could write some and copy easily. In addition, there was a fair amount of help from Mom. As time went on, the letters got longer, but in the photo above, my darling daughters were just 5 and 3 years of age,
After the letters were painstakingly copied, the girls put their letters in envelopes printed with a big "To Santa." At that time we only lived about 10 to 12 miles to our destination, but it took 20 to 25 minutes before we arrived at the Santa Mail Box which was located outside of the then J. W. Kerns Farm Equipment store. I have always loved this photo of Loli lifting her sister Sharnie so she could put her Own letter in the Santa Mail Box.
Their attire was interesting. They rarely left the house without their cowboy boots - it was Klamath County, you know, and cowboy boots were sort of required. I had made the Pendleton wool jackets that they wore - and had my own matching jacket. The jackets were paired with some harlequin printed pants that I had made. In those days and actually throughout their highschool years, almost all of the girls' clothing as well as my own were made at my sewing machine.
In Klamath Falls in the 1950s, J. W. Kerns carried one of the bigger selection of toys and Christmas items, and was the place to go for farm folk - if you wanted to shop in store. Obviously, after posting the letters, the girls and I strolled through the store to view the Christmas toys and decorations. Back then, it was an adventure that could easily surpass a Christmas shopping trip to a big box store nowadays.
And Santa's Mail Box seemed substantial. Surely he would get those letters and fill their wishes with care.
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