We Gather Together

When the family would gather at my grandparent Miner’s home, it was often glorious confusion. Most of their children would be there which also meant that there was also an abundance of cousins. We often talked, laughed, and of course there were games. Red light stop-Green light go, tag, hide and seek, climbing trees, and occasionally we would play ball when the flat area of the hay field was cut short. We couldn’t trample the hay that Granddad needed to feed the cows.

When we played inside it was with toys we brought with us, although Gram had a set of Lincoln logs for us to build. She had a plastic ranch style doll house, but it only came out at Christmas as decoration under the tree. Sometimes the girls would slip into the “sitting room,” lift off its blue roof, and rearrange the miniature furniture inside.

Cotton batting under the tree was the nesting place for the cardboard village and the zigzag wooden fence made of twigs. Gram had 8 lead reindeer, one for each of her children. The deer were about 4 inches high with wide spreading antlers. The antlers bent easily and had to be handled with care. There were also 8 bisque dogs, white with black and brown spots. The tree limbs had fluffed aluminum roping, colored lights, and the old aluminum icicles. Some of the lights looked like candles that bubbled when they became warm. The hanging ornaments were of all shapes, colors, and sizes, balls, glass beaded stars and bird houses, foul snowflakes, and a few handmade ones of cardboard and cotton.

Although we gathered at Thanksgiving and Christmas, I can’t remember Gram serving turkey. It was always beef, chicken, or ham. Everybody brought covered dishes, too many to identify and remember. One thing Gram made was always orange Jell-o with sliced bananas. With so many types of food, the Jell-o was relegated to the front porch with other cold dishes to keep cool. It was a surprise when it was brought inside to serve when several Tootsie Roll looking items were lying on top. A cousin who was being potty trained had a potty of pink enamel that resembled the Jell-o bowl and showed she had learned too well. Gram always said, “It was good that she number two-ed or we may have never known.”