Christmas '44

A Very Memorable Christmas During “The Storm.”

Before I was conceived people in Europe and Asia saw the storm clouds gathering. It was less than twenty years after the War To End All Wars. The leaders of Japan; Germany; and Italy were restless and brutal. The atrocities they inflicted on people are unimaginable. Then on September 1, 1939, “The Storm” began and people in almost all parts of the world were affected by it. He Storm” lasted for more than six years.

My earliest memories are hearing about the war, without knowing what a war was all about. However at that time I knew that it made people hurt and they died. My parents wouldn’t let me forget that as a little boy, whenever I heard that a person my family knew was going in the service (“off to war”) I would go under the table, be quiet and cry.
Besides Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, during my first three years of school The most talked about item was World War II. Before school and after lunch hour we sang Patriotic songs and war songs: Do you remember them?

There’s a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere
Praise the Lord and Pass the ammunition
Coming in on a wing and a prayer.
Battle Hymn of The Republic
God Bless America

The most memorable Christmas of my life was in 1944; during “The Storm:” That was the year at age seven, when I took the axe and went alone into the woods behind my home and cut the Christmas tree. The one I cut matched the size of the tree that three of my classmates and I mentioned when we told our anticipations. We were all going to have a very large tree at our homes. After dragging it to the house I discovered it was too large to get into the little house where we lived. The day before Christmas my mother cut more than six feet off the bottom of the tree and put the tree top on the table by the window. The tree was decorated with small shiny balls of red, green, blue, and gold. Some strings of white popcorn made during a Christmas season of another year were a continuous chain from branch to branch. With the popcorn in place many strips of tinsel were placed on the tree. The tinsel shivered and danced every time someone moved in the house.

Christmas morning I found my stocking with my name on it filled with an orange, apple, a package of dates, A little bag of Christmas candy, and some peanuts in the shell. I also received an envelope with $2.00 in it from my Grandmother. I was happy when I opened the envelope because I knew I would have enough money to buy War Bond Stamps and fill the stamp book. For two years I had been trying to fill that book knowing that in ten years I would be able to cash the war bond and receive $25.00. NOTES: (Ten years later, at college, how I needed that $25.00! (2) An ad I saw in a newspaper that year I have remembered all of my life; There was a picture displaying a Christmas scene. Under the picture were the words: “So there will always be a Christmas; BUY WAR BONDS.

The ad may have been affective selling War Bonds but I learned from the Bible (Matthew Chapter 2) that it takes more than leaders of a country and a World War to eliminate Christ and Christmas. Ever since the three Wise men were sent on their mission to find the Christ child so King Herod could kill him, until the present day, people from all countries have been unsuccessful in destroying Christ and keeping Christ out of Christmas.

Christmas Day 1944 passed all too quickly. My family was happy. Some relatives and friends dropped by our home and my family enjoyed a big Christmas dinner. Some time after 9 o’clock in the evening I found myself alone as much as a person could be under our families living conditions. I was sitting in the rocking chair beside the wood stove. The only light in the house was a flickering kerosene lamp on the shelf beside the stove, but all of the little reflections of the light were dancing in the Christmas tree decorations. I was softly crying,---not because I was disappointed with that wonderful Christmas Day, but because I knew it would be a year before I would again experience such happiness.

Before the next Christmas, World War II had ended,. Several years later I heard the band Leader; Guy Lombardo, being interviewed. He was asked if there was one special New Year’s Eve he remembered. Without any hesitation he said: “New Year’s Eve 1945.” That evening where his band was playing there was nothing like the overwhelming happiness that he witnessed..

After every big storm there is destruction caused from the storm that is very evident. Sixty years after World War II scars from that war are still very evident. Most of us know or have known World War II veterans that displayed those scars. Two memorable veterans I must mention:

Soon after moving from our little house in 1948, I met Chester “Bruce” Quinn for the first time. Almost every day he was a customer in my parent’s store. Bruce moved very slowly, would say the grocery item he needed, then lean on the candy counter with a far away look in his eye. One day I heard him say “shrapnel,” point to his head and indicate that he had a silver plate in that area. I became good friends with Bruce and his family and watched Bruce as he slowly improved from his injuries. It was wonderful to see the grandson of Bruce: John Francis, Jr., with a smile on his face, talking a lot and being the spark plug on a very good high school basketball team. More than fifty years after the war Bruce and I were digging clams each day near the same area of East Bay, Perry, Maine. Recently Bruce Quinn had a write up in the local newspapers when he received a medal from the Government of France for helping to liberate France during World War II.

In Portland, Maine during the late 1960’s ,while doing training runs for the Boston Marathon and other races, I met Richard Goodie. We talked as we jogged. I listened intently to many of his stories.
“Dick” being more than ten years older than myself, has never forgotten Christmas 1944. That Christmas was much different for him than it was for me. Dick was with the 3rd Armored Division, about 40 kilometers from Bastonge during the Battle of The Bulge. For more than 30 nights his bed was in a bedroll, in the snow. Conditions were not good. Dick has written books and several stories about World War II, and running. Also about members of his World War II unit returning to cities in France 50 years after liberating those towns and cities. A few years ago Richard Goodie was inducted into the Maine Running Hall of Fame.

The “Storms” pass by, leaving memories that last a long time.

Note: Check out: War Stories By Dick Goodie on the Internet.


By: Dale C. Lincoln
Perry, Maine
In
Zephyrhills, Florida
Dec. 21, 2007.

ERROR CORRECTED: The first draft of this story, found on Skillin’s Garden Log, I made an error stating that Richard Goodie, was with the group “The Battered Bastards of Bastonge (101 Airborne Division) during the Battle of the Bulge. At that time Richard Goodie was about 40 kilometers away from Bastonge with the 3rd Armored Division.
Must say: “I’m sorry to the readers of Skillin’s Garden Log and especially to my friend, Richard Goodie, for that error.
Sincerely;
Dale C. Lincoln