Some snapshot Christmas memories
Okay, I hope I don't get maudlin or too sappy with this exercise but I'm 60 or 61 now and who knows how much longer the Lord will tarry.
Here are some random Christmas memories of Stephen M. Fox on the earth; some at length,mostly snapshot.
First one I remember, well I'm already going back a little. In Erwin, NC in 57 or so the East Erwin Baptist church got the 4 year old boys a rattlin toy machine gun. And I remember my Mother trying to get us to be quieter as me and Ricky High were making a ruckus inside the church. I think they sent us outside.
in 59 the Truett Memorial Baptist Church had a live Nativity Scene on HWY 64 that came through town. My Dad was in charge of that. We went to get the donkey one morning and it jumped out of the stall over my Dad; don't know how it did but that's what I remember. Got my first bicycle there on a Christmas Sunday morning about the 2nd grade, 1960. Ran out of church to go get on it and ride down the sidewalk toDoc Padgetts and back before Sunday noon dinner. Aunt Jean and Uncle Bill bought me an electric train with a smokestack.
In Gaffney tenth grade 68 my Mom and Dad sacrificed to by me a silver trombone. Cost em 200 bucks which was pretty stiff on their budget. Mr. Howard helped them pick it out. He died last year.
All the Christmases of the 60s and early 70s going to see Nanny and Papa in Rome Georgia, chopping wood for Papa's fireplace, hearing stories about Wears Valley Tennessee and playing competitive Scrabble and Rook with Uncle Fremont and Uncle Paul and Aunt Katharine and the banter of cousins and the rest were grand, not to mention Nanny's food.
And then we'd go over to Aunt Jean and Uncle Bill's for more formal situations but that had its redemptive qualities as well; The family chorus was alittle better there, more exact though the Foxxes had some good voices too, just not as disciplined on those occasions.
In Gaffney, SC from 62-78 My Dad would fix Christmas baskets for everyone younger than 18 and over 65, rather Christmas sacks with oranges and apples and candy from Raymond Kellers. I think we did 110 one year that at Bethany. About 73 I was in from Furman and ran some of the errands. Preston Williams, Kent and Shirley were there on the front row singing Christmas carols, packed house. Two Christmases before at the HS annual assembly where I shined on my trombone with Sleigh Ride, we had the whole student body sing some carols under the direction of Ramona Ross. Jimmy Baker and Danny Parker were sittin on the front row of the bleachers. I remember Baker with one hand in his pocket and his song sheet, he and Parker singing their guts out. Characters both. All the folks in this lastparagraph except me have passed now.
In 94 or so my Brother and his son Chad and famly came down from Travelers Rest, South Carolina to see us in Collinsville. They often brought videos and this year they had the Nutty Professor with them.
Leah Blanton, Susan Weaver and Andrea Wright came down to the house about 7 pm Christmas Day or the day after. Leah said Preacher what movies you got? Andrea and Susan went on in the kitchen to talk to my sister and see my brothers wife and little chad and Katie. In a few mins we here this noise in the living room. Leah and Daddy hootin and hollerin are cracked up to the point of tears in the farting sequence, "Come on Over Here Cletus, it ain't nothing but a short walk!"
After Momma died my Dad and I would come up to my sisters in Mauldin S.C. and go to the Eve service at FBC Mauldin. They had some great soloists and the 11pm service would pack out at about 350 folks or more.
About 2002 I was in the Collinsville cantata and had a solo in my white sweater. Martha Barksdale said I did okay but was nothing special.
Well Martha doesn't know that Christmas 1972 I sang the Messiah with the Furman Singers, one of the best Collegiate chorales in the southeast and was on statewide TV. Got to see the repeat show on Channel Four when I was home in Gaffney. So there, Martha. Momma was proud of me.
About ten days ago My Dad's last sister passed away. My brother and sister and the last brother came down from the Carolinas. My Cousin Tim did a grand job in a tribute to his Mother,my Aunt who made the best dark chocolate pie in the family.
And then yesterday because Jake Payton and about 7 other "friends" couldn't get me to Cave Spring, Ga things got complicated for my first leg of the trip to the Carolinas to be with family. Lil Mac is in the world now and has another Brother coming along in February. With the assistance of a nephew, his Uncle Chad, we're gonna keep the baseball fandom and tales going with Knuckleball Ned and my sister has made a German Chocolate Cake and Italian Crème Cake better than any Todd Heifner has ever eaten in all the 50 states plus Cuba and Memphis he has visited.
So Merry Christmas to all
Here are some random Christmas memories of Stephen M. Fox on the earth; some at length,mostly snapshot.
First one I remember, well I'm already going back a little. In Erwin, NC in 57 or so the East Erwin Baptist church got the 4 year old boys a rattlin toy machine gun. And I remember my Mother trying to get us to be quieter as me and Ricky High were making a ruckus inside the church. I think they sent us outside.
in 59 the Truett Memorial Baptist Church had a live Nativity Scene on HWY 64 that came through town. My Dad was in charge of that. We went to get the donkey one morning and it jumped out of the stall over my Dad; don't know how it did but that's what I remember. Got my first bicycle there on a Christmas Sunday morning about the 2nd grade, 1960. Ran out of church to go get on it and ride down the sidewalk toDoc Padgetts and back before Sunday noon dinner. Aunt Jean and Uncle Bill bought me an electric train with a smokestack.
In Gaffney tenth grade 68 my Mom and Dad sacrificed to by me a silver trombone. Cost em 200 bucks which was pretty stiff on their budget. Mr. Howard helped them pick it out. He died last year.
All the Christmases of the 60s and early 70s going to see Nanny and Papa in Rome Georgia, chopping wood for Papa's fireplace, hearing stories about Wears Valley Tennessee and playing competitive Scrabble and Rook with Uncle Fremont and Uncle Paul and Aunt Katharine and the banter of cousins and the rest were grand, not to mention Nanny's food.
And then we'd go over to Aunt Jean and Uncle Bill's for more formal situations but that had its redemptive qualities as well; The family chorus was alittle better there, more exact though the Foxxes had some good voices too, just not as disciplined on those occasions.
In Gaffney, SC from 62-78 My Dad would fix Christmas baskets for everyone younger than 18 and over 65, rather Christmas sacks with oranges and apples and candy from Raymond Kellers. I think we did 110 one year that at Bethany. About 73 I was in from Furman and ran some of the errands. Preston Williams, Kent and Shirley were there on the front row singing Christmas carols, packed house. Two Christmases before at the HS annual assembly where I shined on my trombone with Sleigh Ride, we had the whole student body sing some carols under the direction of Ramona Ross. Jimmy Baker and Danny Parker were sittin on the front row of the bleachers. I remember Baker with one hand in his pocket and his song sheet, he and Parker singing their guts out. Characters both. All the folks in this lastparagraph except me have passed now.
In 94 or so my Brother and his son Chad and famly came down from Travelers Rest, South Carolina to see us in Collinsville. They often brought videos and this year they had the Nutty Professor with them.
Leah Blanton, Susan Weaver and Andrea Wright came down to the house about 7 pm Christmas Day or the day after. Leah said Preacher what movies you got? Andrea and Susan went on in the kitchen to talk to my sister and see my brothers wife and little chad and Katie. In a few mins we here this noise in the living room. Leah and Daddy hootin and hollerin are cracked up to the point of tears in the farting sequence, "Come on Over Here Cletus, it ain't nothing but a short walk!"
After Momma died my Dad and I would come up to my sisters in Mauldin S.C. and go to the Eve service at FBC Mauldin. They had some great soloists and the 11pm service would pack out at about 350 folks or more.
About 2002 I was in the Collinsville cantata and had a solo in my white sweater. Martha Barksdale said I did okay but was nothing special.
Well Martha doesn't know that Christmas 1972 I sang the Messiah with the Furman Singers, one of the best Collegiate chorales in the southeast and was on statewide TV. Got to see the repeat show on Channel Four when I was home in Gaffney. So there, Martha. Momma was proud of me.
About ten days ago My Dad's last sister passed away. My brother and sister and the last brother came down from the Carolinas. My Cousin Tim did a grand job in a tribute to his Mother,my Aunt who made the best dark chocolate pie in the family.
And then yesterday because Jake Payton and about 7 other "friends" couldn't get me to Cave Spring, Ga things got complicated for my first leg of the trip to the Carolinas to be with family. Lil Mac is in the world now and has another Brother coming along in February. With the assistance of a nephew, his Uncle Chad, we're gonna keep the baseball fandom and tales going with Knuckleball Ned and my sister has made a German Chocolate Cake and Italian Crème Cake better than any Todd Heifner has ever eaten in all the 50 states plus Cuba and Memphis he has visited.
So Merry Christmas to all
posted by foxofbama | 1:36 PM
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