Christmas Tales Remembered
I have been reading a few Christmas blogs over the recently past season. It set me to thinking of what I might share -that was a week ago- what the hay, so I'm a little slow!
My dad was quite the prankster. Sometimes people would find his pranks funny and sometimes not so funny. We had this old double barrel shotgun, a Nitro shooter from St.Louis circa late 1800's or early 1900's. It was in the Strait family and prized amongst the sons of Janie. My dad had retrieved it from a distant cousin, Ralph and then after my dad passed my uncle had it. I retrieved it from him. Back to the story....
Every Christmas when I was a kid my dad would go to E.G.'s house cause he reloaded shotgun shells and get a couple of 12 guage empty shells. He would throw them into the chambers of the old "Strait" double barrel and pull the hammers back. Then he would announce that he was staying up late and was gonna shoot Santa Claus. Got us kids in hysterics! Woke up the next morning and Santa Claus had come, but he made a mess of setting up the Fort Apache.
The above story when retold has been labeled not so funny. But, it did not warp me as a kid and in fact I got hoot out of it. Nothing matches the hoot we all still get out of a story that most would call funny.
My dad always had a habit of announcing that he was going to hang his stocking, a burlap sack, on the mailbox and see what Santa would bring him. (Why would a round bearded man who had been threatened with empty shotgun shells from an antique gun want to leave this loony tune anything escapes us all.)
Every Christmas morning my dad went to the mailbox and returned to the living room to empty his stocking. Of course nothing came out. He would announce that it appeared that he had been naughty, not nice. We all knew that anyway.
One Christmas my uncle and aunt from my mom's side of the family were living in Little Rock. They came over on Christmas Eve with my cousins. At the end of the evening my dad made his "stocking hanging proclamation" then proceeded to march to the mailbox.
The next morning my dad went to fetch his stocking. He returned to the living room with a puzzled look on his face. Then he poured out a mess of produce (I recall potatoes. My mom recalls onions. So we will refer to it as produce for accuaracy.)
Guess my uncle figured he would pull his own prank!
-willi
My dad was quite the prankster. Sometimes people would find his pranks funny and sometimes not so funny. We had this old double barrel shotgun, a Nitro shooter from St.Louis circa late 1800's or early 1900's. It was in the Strait family and prized amongst the sons of Janie. My dad had retrieved it from a distant cousin, Ralph and then after my dad passed my uncle had it. I retrieved it from him. Back to the story....
Every Christmas when I was a kid my dad would go to E.G.'s house cause he reloaded shotgun shells and get a couple of 12 guage empty shells. He would throw them into the chambers of the old "Strait" double barrel and pull the hammers back. Then he would announce that he was staying up late and was gonna shoot Santa Claus. Got us kids in hysterics! Woke up the next morning and Santa Claus had come, but he made a mess of setting up the Fort Apache.
The above story when retold has been labeled not so funny. But, it did not warp me as a kid and in fact I got hoot out of it. Nothing matches the hoot we all still get out of a story that most would call funny.
My dad always had a habit of announcing that he was going to hang his stocking, a burlap sack, on the mailbox and see what Santa would bring him. (Why would a round bearded man who had been threatened with empty shotgun shells from an antique gun want to leave this loony tune anything escapes us all.)
Every Christmas morning my dad went to the mailbox and returned to the living room to empty his stocking. Of course nothing came out. He would announce that it appeared that he had been naughty, not nice. We all knew that anyway.
One Christmas my uncle and aunt from my mom's side of the family were living in Little Rock. They came over on Christmas Eve with my cousins. At the end of the evening my dad made his "stocking hanging proclamation" then proceeded to march to the mailbox.
The next morning my dad went to fetch his stocking. He returned to the living room with a puzzled look on his face. Then he poured out a mess of produce (I recall potatoes. My mom recalls onions. So we will refer to it as produce for accuaracy.)
Guess my uncle figured he would pull his own prank!
-willi
posted by willi at 8:01 PM
5 Comments:
Sounds like you have good memories of Christmases past. I'm glad and maybe a little surprised .I still say it was onions in the burlap bag and we did have a good laugh over it. Remember we left the porch light on for years so Ralph could come for the double barrel but he never did.
It sounds as though your dad was quite the prankster! It's good to have such wonderful memories of Christmas Past.
Nice story. I like the idea of a burlap sack on the mail box. Those sacks are big. Santa should be able to see it on the mail box. Next year I am going to try that out for size. I may have to get a double barrel to grade all the good stuff that is left in the sack. But then I might shoot my eye out.
That's a great story. I would be tempted to put a few lumps of coal into that sack for him. LOL
The neatest thing for me is to hear you and your mom tell this tale and then listen to your children talk about Santa putting their treats in the cowboy boots that you left out! Great memories past and present!
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