The Bay Mills History Department's Wanda Perron and Paula Parker have collected long, long ago Christmas memories from some of Bay Mills' Tribal Elders. Here are a few recollections ...
Agnes Carrick
When I was young, usually my brothers and my dad would go and cut the Christmas tree. Everyone would work together and decorate it. We strung popcorn and cranberries and hung them on the tree. Some of us would make paper chains also. We never had lights of any kind on the tree.
Each of us hung our own stocking, usually the biggest one we could find. They were not your Christmas stockings of today; they were ones we wore recently. On Christmas morning we usually found an apple, orange and candy in it.
One time, when I was about 12 years old, Uncle Leo hitched up his horse and sleigh and drove it to Brimley across the ice on the Back Bay. He came back the road way dressed as Santa Claus with bags of candy for all the kids. We knew that a surprise was coming so all of us kids were standing in the middle of the road anxiously waiting. Before long we could see Santa and his sleigh coming around the big corner. It seemed to take forever for him to get there. That was the only time that I remember seeing Santa Claus. The last present I remember getting was a grown-up doll and Audrey got a baby doll. I liked hers better so I traded her.
My fondest memory was when my Uncle Jim Smith gave Mom 50 cents to buy Christmas presents for all of us. And she did it. We all liked our gifts.
Don Parish
When I was younger we would all look for dad's “big” stocking to hang by the stove. On Christmas morning we might find hard candy and gum drop candy, small cars or jack knives in our stocking also.
Everyone would help get a tree. Sometimes winters were very hard so it was hard work trudging through the snow. We would look at the tops of the trees and if it looked good we would cut it down. We decorated it by stringing popcorn and sometimes raisins. We also cut out many paper things to hang on it, which us kids decorated ourselves. Our school always put on a play and we had a choir, also. Our families and the whole community would come out to see it because there was not much else to do at that time. Someone always passed out candy to the kids at these events. Our choir sang at other schools and one time we sang on the radio in Canada.
For Christmas dinner we would have roast pork or fried rabbit, turnips and carrots from the garden and homemade mincemeat or raisin pie. Mincemeat pie was the favorite. There was no such thing as chocolate or lemon pie then.
Everyone believed in Santa then, although we had never seen him as kids. My favorite present was a pair of skates I got when I was 12. You had to strap them over your boots.
My fondest memory happened during the depression. Fish was selling for only one penny a pound then. Uncle Leo owned an old truck and I caught a ride into the Cadillac Soo Lumber Company. I took the 22 rabbits I caught and sold them to the workers there for “two for 50 cents.” After that Uncle Leo took me down town and I bought presents for everybody.
Amelia LeBlanc
I spent all my Christmas' in the St. Joseph Orphanage in Baraga. The Nuns would decorate a little tree for each of us to keep in our room. We also had a big tree that the farm help would go and cut down and we set it up in the recreation room. We would all make the decorations from popcorn. We would also have taffy pulls, in which we all got to help.
I definitely believed in Santa Claus but, being raised in the orphanage, the birth of Christ was stressed. We would put on a play for the Knights of Columbus of Houghton and afterwards they would give us a bag of candy.
The Nuns would make us our Christmas stockings and they would be filled with nuts, hard candy, apples and oranges and my favorite candy to this day, the chocolate round ones with cream in the middle.
We would have a big meal with Turkey and all the trimmings and homemade rolls.
My fondest Christmas memory is when I was around the age of 11, my sister Evelyn gave me a doll. I loved that doll.
Robert & Dee Bowen
“We always had a Christmas tree,” said Rob. “We never had lights on it because there was no electricity then but we would decorate it with popcorn balls.”
“My dad and Uncle Semasky would go get our tree,” said Dee. “My mother would string the popcorn for us and we would make paper decoration out of glue and glitter.
“My fondest memory of Christmas was when I was 8 years old. It was a green Christmas and my mother was upset about it because she loved Christmas so much. I remember sitting and staring out the window waiting for the snow to come. But the best part of it was that I got a walking doll that Christmas. That's my fondest memory,” said Dee.
“I did believe in Santa Claus until my older brothers would tell me different. We would hear that Santa was coming to the Soo on a train when we were young but it was hard to get in there.”
“My dad never had a job a lot of the Christmas,” said Rob. “They made do with what they had. I remember one time when I was 5 or 6 years old my big brother and dad would always go to the barn and stay there. We were not allowed to be around. For Christmas that year we got handmade cars. My car was painted white. That was my fondest memory of Christmas.”
Bud Parish
Anyone that wanted could go and help get our Christmas tree, which was usually a balsam. We would decorate it with a lot of homemade stuff. I do remember we had some beautiful glass bulbs on our tree. No lights though. We didn't even have electricity then.
I remember one time I wanted a pair of skates so bad, but I got a snow scooter instead. It was really nice with runners on it but I remember feeling disappointed.
My fondest memory of Christmas was my dad not chasing us back to bed that morning.
