It was 1965 and my mother and father were from large families six and eight on each side. The background house you see on this page is a house very similar to my grandmothers in St. Louis, Missouri and this is where our tale begins. It was Christmas Eve and looking out the window from the second floor I could see the winter streets and the maginificent snow covered Elm trees that ran along the city block on each side. Grandma's house was busy and buzzing with children. The house was warm and comfortable with the smells of fresh pies and cookies. Mom and my aunts were cooking a Christmas ham.

The Christmas tree was full of presents and looked picture perfect. Being from out in the county it was always quite a trip to make our way in for this occassion. Dad used to put chains on the car and we would load up and go slow. Back then it was on a two lane road known as Gravois road. In the city houses were linked together by long wrought iron staircases at the back of the houses. You could walk across a platform and knock on your neighbors door. My brother Randy and I were in the living room playing cards with our cousins and my aunts were signing christmas songs. My father and Uncles were comming into the house one at a time. In those days the men worked on Christmas Eve as my uncles were fireman and policeman.

All seemed well and peaceful when from the kitchen I heard my grandmother call my Dad down the hall. Being a child I thought nothing of it at the time. Suddenly eveyone was rushing to the kitchen and Dad was on the phone calling the fire deparment. The house next door was on fire and you could begin to smell the smoke. The house next door was the same house my father had lived in years before and yes he married the girl next door:). The smell of smoke was now very pugnant in the air and you could see the flames from the kitchen. My father had went next door and helped the family by getting the children out and the parents were battling to try and get the fire out. The fire department showed up and there was Dad, my uncles, and the fire department putting the fire out in the kitchen. The fire had spread into bedrooms and the flames were blazing. Dad came in for a moment and his face was full of black soot and clothes full of smoke. He had a rug in his hand and had been fighting the fire. It took about an hour but the Fire department had extinguished the fire. The family next door was a poor family and what christmas they had went up in flames and water.

I remember that evening as if it was yesterday, taking stock of things my mom and aunts asked the children if we would give up one present each, as these children now had nothing. My cousins and I said sure and we each just took a gift that was under the tree with our name on it and gave them to Mom. Grandmother made beds upstairs for the family. The upstairs floor had a sink, stove, and ice box in it with a fire place. I played up there all the time as a child and Mom had lived up there with our oldest brother when her first husband had died. What clothes were left from the fire were brought over from the family next door and we all sat down to eat a christmas dinner.

It's so strange when I reflect on this years later, here we all were on Christmas Eve, a fire breaks out and the family next door looses everything and what do we do? We set them up with a place to live, give them presents and eat dinner all in two hours. I find it remarkable and I am so proud of people back then. They took care of each other and then went on about life as if this was just another event. Those people next door whom untill that evening, I had never met before, stayed at my grandma's house for weeks untill the house was fixed. I ask my grandmother years later what she thought about that, she said well people needed help and in our time we helped them. I said to her do you think people today have that same pioneer stock about them? She smiled and said yes, its not pioneer stock at all son, its people helping people and that has been going on for centuries.

On this Christmas I hope that your families are warm and well. Its a time for gathering together being a family and healing perhaps old wounds. We are not long on this earth , as people, we are all we have. let your hearts be filled with Joy.

Merry Christmas !