Christmas 1957 was one of the happiest days of my life. It was made all the more joyful by surviving
challenging times.
On April Fool’s Day 1957, our house burned down. I was 10 years old and was playing with my
ducks in the irrigation ditch behind our house.
I heard screaming and run to the house to see my whole family crying and
calling out my name. My parents had all
my brothers (ages 8, 6, 4, and 2) out of the house and they thought I was still
inside. I arrived just as my father was
trying to go in our house, which was totally engulfed in flames, to find me. He surely would have died if he went back
into the house. My parents were only
able to save what was most valuable, our family, and nothing else. Even my Dad’s wallet with his paycheck was
left inside.
All my parents had were 5 children and a green 1950 station
wagon which had the keys inside. We were
all wearing our oldest clothes that we used to do our chores. Now we had no home or clothes to go to
school. We drove to Albuquerque to stay
with my abuela. She had only a 2 room
house with one bed. Our parents arranged
us like logs on the bed and they slept on the floor. In the morning my abuela made us frijoles and
tortillas and we were happy to have good food. I still think that frijoles and tortillas are
the best food around.
My father worked as a security guard at Los Alamos and was
able to get government housing during the summer. We moved to Los Alamos into a home with
nothing in it. Some of my Dad’s friends
brought over boxes of clothing and household items. I remember going through the boxes hoping to
find something that would fit me. There
were lots of miscellaneous items including a small silver pin in the form of a
cuckoo clock. I was able to start school
in Los Alamos with donated clothing and the cuckoo clock pin.
We met a Santa at one of the stores and my brothers wished
for trucks and toy pistols and cowboy hats.
I wanted a doll dressed like a bride.
That Christmas was the year that I began to seriously doubt the
existence of Santa Claus. I knew that we
would get nothing because we could barely afford food for the family. We did manage a scraggly tree with one string
of lights. We all stared at the tree as
if it were magical. I don’t think I
slept very much on Christmas Eve. I
dreamed of the bride doll and hoped for a new sweater. As the lights came in the window I imagined
it was Santa and the lights on the wall looked like Christmas presents.
On Christmas morning, we all went downstairs and looked at
amazement at the 3 bicycles and 2 tricycles left by Santa. There was a bride doll too. My mother had made a most beautiful bridal
dress for the doll. There was even a
blue sweater too. We were all so happy
that Santa remembered us in our new home.
I was cleaning out my jewelry box this year and found the
little silver cuckoo clock pin that I received over a half century ago and
remembered that Christmas which was one of the happiest days of my life. My father has passed away and I never asked
him how he managed to buy all those bicycles.
I never thanked him for risking his life to save mine either. However, the Christmas spirit that I
experienced as a child still lives strong in my home. My Christmas tree still looks magical. I just
bought some new bicycles for my granddaughters too.
Here is a photo of that Christmas in 1957.
