Elnora's Children

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That is a tough question as I have been blessed with many memorable Christmases during my time and I wouldn’t know which one to share. Why just considering the question has flooded my mind’s eye with many of the Christmas Memories I’ve experienced:

The memories that came to mind, and I considered sharing were of really fun, somber and meaningful Christmases like when I was 5 years old; Christmas 1960. Greg (my brother Gregory/1st Gen-Legacy) and I were blessed with a cowboy’s get-up (hat, cap guns & holsters, horses – painted mop sticks with a horse’s head and wheels, and a rifle that had little plastic bullets). Me and Greg were always early risers even at five; early Christmas morning, it’s still dark outside, we were up opening gifts and playing with them even outside. We used the 24 hour laundromat on the corner of Park Dr. and Campbell Street next to the Biggins & Meeks Pharmacy as our playground. We played cowboys in the laundromat all morning until our presence at home was required. That was an okay memory, but I don’t know.

I then considered sharing the Christmas of 1965; it was very special to me. My mind flashed back to that day; I’m sitting on a Greyhound Bus traveling from Miami, FL to Daytona Beach, 10 years old. I remember it to be a bright, clear and beautiful day; a typical Florida Christmas. It was a time of my “coming of age;” a time when I learned some of life’s harsh lessons. I was finishing up a two year odyssey that began at the end of my 2^nd Grade school year and saw me travel from Daytona Beach to Miami, FL; then from Miami, FL back to Daytona Beach and from there to Sylvania, GA. Where I finished my 3^rd grade year and began my 4^th grade year before getting on the road again destined for Miami, FL where I continued the 4^th grade year. While in Miami I became quite the artist developing a passion for drawing action figures. I was in Miami for months before returning to a new home in Daytona Beach, “Caroline Village” where I finished the 4^th grade and remained until graduating high school. What I remembered the most about coming home is that it was Christmas, seeing my Mom and the gifts she had for me; the best gift was a big box of crayons with every color imaginable; ideal for a budding artist. This story was okay too but I don’t know; I’m thinking it’s far too somber to tell.   

That’s when it hit me like the lights going on; I should share the Christmas of 1973!! That’s the Christmas that I asked my girlfriend, who was my best friend and the love of my life the esteemed Miss Sharon Shelton if she would do me the honor of being my wife; and she said yes. Best Christmas ever no doubt; then she said I had to ask her Mother for her hand. Suddenly the deal wasn’t closed; there was work to be done. My mind raced back to the time I bought Sharon home late one time too many and she was waiting for me on the front porch with King, her big German Sheppard. I think all in all though she knew me to be smart, talented and hardworking. So I stepped up and asked her for Sharon’s hand in marriage on Christmas day; she was patient and kind. She approved of our engagement with but one request that “I would wait before marrying Sharon until I could afford to keep her in the manner in which she is accustomed.” Well, you know Sharon and I was married by the summer of ‘74 while we still struggled to see the ends let alone make them meet; but I committed to my mother-in-law’s request of me and over our 43 years we have achieved a comfortable, and happy life with God, the creator of all that is at its center.

My fondest Christmas Memory? I have been blessed with so many wonderful and fascinating Christmases that…, I don’t know; I can’t settle on one.

What is your fondest Family Memory?

2019 © Dave Ponder