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Friday, 18 December 2009 |
By MATT NICHOLS
Staff Writer
The 1920 Christmas season had only just begun in the farmlands of Hardin County, and Ruth Focht was excited.
The first snow had fallen in northwestern Ohio, and that meant one thing for the 6-year-old and her fellow students in their small one-room school house.
“That first snow would fall and we could all expect my father to get a sled with two horses and fresh straw,” Focht said, recounting the events as if they had happened only yesterday. “He would come by and pick us up and take each one of us home. Gosh we would look forward to that.”
Focht, 96, said she never had a chance to see what the holiday season looked like in the big cities during those days. The largest city she knew of at the time was Alger and Harrod.
But The Gardens of Wapakoneta resident said she wouldn’t trade her country experiences for the world. The holiday season on the farm was closely linked to family and the church.
“I remember we would make decorations with crepe paper,” Focht said. “You could cut it and twist it and we’d hang it all over.
“Christ was really talked up all the time,” she said. “And that season was a very important time in our lives because everyone would go to church. It was a very big deal.”
Focht said after the first snowfall, she and her fellow students were allowed to bring their sleds to school. There were more recesses than normal during the holiday season, and she said sometimes, students would get a bit out of hand.
“I remember the larger boys and girls would lock the teacher out of the school house,” Focht said. “I remember they did it one time, and I just cried because it was my aunt they locked out.”
It was an annual tradition that Focht and her siblings would pray after the first snowfall, hoping it would last until Christmas morning.
Ninety three-year-old Mildred Bowsher would also pray during the holiday season — but for an entirely different matter.
“We prayed a lot that Santa wouldn’t miss the house,” Bowsher said. “Back in those days, Santa really was the miracle man.”
One year, Bowsher’s mother thought the children were old enough to see Santa first hand. One Christmas eve, the miracle man himself knocked on the door.
Bowsher said it was one of the biggest mistakes her mother could make.
“He came to the door and we took one look and screamed and cried,” Bowsher said with a laugh. “We were such big babies. We were scared of everything.”
For her first 12 years, Bowsher grew up outside Leipsic before moving to Wapakoneta. Moving to the city was major change for Bowsher and her nine siblings.
“We had never even been to a store before and all of a sudden we have this whole downtown,” Bowsher said. “We didn’t know what to think.”
Bowsher’s family moved into a home at the intersection of Main and Blackhoof streets, and the proximity to the downtown was a major plus for the children, she said.
“My mother would let us walk uptown at night to see the lights and that was such a thrill,” Bowsher said. “The people in the shops knew we had never seen that stuff before and they just took us by the hand and led us around.”
Leland Stroh was born and raised in Wapakoneta. The 89-year-old spent much of his childhood during the depression, and its impact was felt during many holiday seasons.
“We would go to the grandparents house with everyone in the family and you would maybe get two presents,” Stroh said. “It was tough times.”
The greatest present Stroh ever received came when he was 10-years-old. His father purchased him a .410 shotgun.
“On Christmas morning, we went out to the farm, and I used that shotgun to get my first rabbit,” Stroh recalled with a smile.
St. Paul United Church of Christ was the focal point of the holiday season for the young Stroh and his fellow classmates who put on plays during the season.
The result of their hard work during the plays was one of the highlights of the season, he said.
“We would each get a little sack that had an orange and some hard tack candy,” Stroh recalled. “That was like we were getting everything.”
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Last Updated ( Monday, 21 December 2009 )
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