subscribesubscriber servicescontact usabout ussite map
Sun, Jul 05 2009 

Published December 21, 2008 12:20 am -

Remembering a Christmas when times weren’t so hard



I remember that old screen door slamming, and looking out into the night beneath a street light, hoping to see a flake of snow.

As a boy, I spent most every Christmas Eve in the pool hall back home in the hills, just a ways from the Big Piney River, not far from heaven. Dad and Grandpa McNew and I owned the pool hall on Main Street in the small town of Houston.

It was like a second home for me. All my friends were there, the old-timers like Bill Stalder and Jim Splechter and Jess Wolf. They were rivermen and outdoorsmen a lot like Grandpa Dablemont. In all, there were about a dozen of them who came in and watched the snooker games and talked about big catfish and hat-rack bucks and politics and religion.

There was Ed Davis, Saldy Reardon, Churchill Hoyt and General Romines and Norman Salyer, just to name a few. And then there were a few boys my age, like Bobby Goodman and Billy Bob Woods, both of them top-flight snooker players like me by the time they were 13 years old.

Dad set up rules to make it a place where anyone could come, and there was no alcohol or bad language tolerated when he and Grandpa McNew were there. Educated men who were a great influence on me came in quite often, like Virgil Davis and Coach Weaver, Doc Dykes and Shorty Evans, even a preacher or two on occasion.

Some folks back in Texas County will remember those names ... and remember me when I was a boy. Many of them occasionally see this column and shake their heads and say, “How did that kid ever amount to anything?”

I fooled a lot of my teachers too, who wondered for years how I ever got into college and actually graduated with the kind of grades I made as a kid. They never understood what a fine place that pool hall was for a boy who wanted to become a writer.

God does indeed work in strange and mysterious ways. I would, in time, write a book about that pool hall and the old men who came in there, and dozens and dozens of columns and short stories about the place. When it came to story telling, I was taught by the best of ’em, right there on the front bench.

On Christmas Eve, there were just a handful of the old-timers who didn’t have families, and didn’t want to be home all alone, and it was a joyous time. They weren’t so much the kind to sit around and be melancholy. Dad let me open up the back of the soda chest when Christmas Eve began to wear down, and give Nehi Christmas presents to all of them.

On occasion, I’d get a present or two myself, always something simple, like an old used pocket knife or a prized marble from someone’s boyhood days. A few times, someone would slip me a 50-cent piece and tell me to buy something special with it.

Once I got a second-hand Christmas card with someone else’s name blacked out with a pencil. It was a special card because it had a flock of mallards on the front. There was that time that Saldy Reardon gave me the $2 bill, and I have written about that memorable Christmas Eve before. (You can find that story on the website…www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com.)

The old timers told about great boyhood memories at Christmas time, back when a wondrous gift amounted to an axe or a couple of muskrat traps or a box of .22 shells. Much of the time there were no gifts at all, just home-made decorations on an evergreen tree.

“I ’member how we’d always cut a cedar tree about three foot high,” Old Jess said, one Christmas Eve. “It took up too much room in that little cabin to have it sittin’ ’round very long. But we’d make strings of decorations out’a popcorn threaded with a needle, and string ’em on that tree. Course with eight kids in that old cabin, sometime durin’ the night the popcorn would get et, so it never lasted long neither. We was just too danged hungry to leave popcorn hanging around for looks.”

Everybody laughed at that. These were all men that had known a little about hunger when they were kids. They were young at a time when there were deer and turkey and ducks still left in the Ozarks, and at Christmas time you ate wild meat or you didn’t eat much. Something like cheap hard candy or popcorn was a real treat.

When those old timers in the pool hall recalled Christmas gifts that moistened their eyes a little, and brought back memories of family members long passed, they were remembering little things, and gifts that were often hand-made.



print this story    email this story    comment on this story   

Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.


Add a comment on this story





monster
autoconx
Premier Guide
Find a business

Walking Fingers
Maps, Menus, Store hours, Coupons, and more...
Premier Guide
Click here!!

We Blog!
We Pod Cast!

We Twitter!

: Special Offer For New Subscribers : 32 buy 1 get 1 free offers

Click Here!

TV LIsitngs



Find a job! Find a Home! Find a car!
Featured Jobs

DELIVERY DRIVER
We have a full time position open for a delivery driver. Position consists of working part time in the warehouse in addi...>MORE

EMERGENCY SERVICE WORKER
EMERGENCY SERVICE WORKER/ EMERGENCY ROOM ADVOCATE Part-time position in women’s treatment/ trauma program. This positio...>MORE

TRUCK MECHANIC

needed for Waste Corporation of Joplin. Competitive pay and benefits package. Requires candidate to own hand tools
...>MORE

ACCOUNTANT.

Expanding CPA firm: full time, degree/ computer skills required. Audit/tax experience preferred. Send resume to P
...>MORE

GROWING DENTAL PRACTICE
looking for experienced Dental Assistant. Computer knowledge a must. Resumes: 2710 Picher, Joplin, MO 64804. Deadline by...>MORE

TEAMS NEEDED

SIGN-ON BONUS $3000
Benefits and West Coast
$$ Scheduled Raises $$
HIGH MILES WEEKLY
72hrs
...>MORE

LIBRARY SPECIALIST
Crowder College Lee Library, 25 hours a week. For complete information, see www.crowder.edu, employment section, or call...>MORE

NURSING PROGRAM COORDINATOR

for Crowder College in Cassville. Requires Master‚s in Nursing and two years of experience within the last five ye
...>MORE

REVETER WANTED
EXPERIENCED for brake manufacturing. Please apply in person at 3215 E. 20th, Joplin, MO. ...>MORE

CHILD CARE WORKER
CHILD CARE WORKER Part-time position working with children 0-6 at Discovery Center childcare center. Day and evening h...>MORE

See all ads

Featured Transportation

FORD 2000 1 TON
Ford, 2000 1 ton, 4X4, 6 speed, duals, flatbed, 7.3 diesel, $6800; 1998 Bucket truck, 55’ Altec. 417-358-8636, 483-9700....>MORE

YAMAHA 1999 ROAD STAR
Yamaha, 1999 Road Star 1600 excellent condition, less than 10,000 miles, saddle bags and highway lamps. $3500. Cell phon...>MORE

FORD 2001 ESCORT
FORD, 2001 Escort, 4 cylinder, automatic, good condition. $1800. (417)437-5682....>MORE

2006 CHEVROLET HHR LT
automatic, 40,000 miles, loaded with options, $6200. (417)434-2949....>MORE

1990 GMC HIGH SIERRA
short wide bed, 2 wheel drive, V-8, power windows/locks, air, CD, tinted windows, chrome wheels. $2,000 or best offer. (...>MORE

CHEVROLET 1997 TAHOE
CHEVROLET, 1997 TAHOE LT, 4X4, Maroon, air, excellent condition, leather seats, power everything, $2500 or best offer Pl...>MORE

1957 CHEVROLET
2 door post, project, rust free Texas car, no motor or transmission, good Missouri title, $7500.
Bob 417-781-1932
...>MORE

LEHMAN TRIKE
LEHMAN TRIKE, 2007, excellent condition, rider has health problems. $20,500. Serious inquires only. (417)529-9554....>MORE

LEXUS 2002 ES
LEXUS, 2002 ES 300, silver/gray leather, navigation, heated seats, second owner, 94,000 miles, $10,900. 620-856-2804, 41...>MORE

1979 CHEVROLET CORVETTE
350 automatic, $5000 or trade consider. (620)230-0459...>MORE

See all ads

Featured Homes

HANDYMAN SPECIAL
Handyman Special, only $500 down, owner financing, 11% interest, $345/ month, priced at $23,900. 1120 W. 12th Street (41...>MORE

OPEN HOUSE
405 Keeney Street, Carl Junction. Sunday July 12 • 2 p.m.-4 p.m.
This home is owned by Carl Junction R-1 School Di
...>MORE

OWNER FINANCE
OWNER FINANCE. $650 down, $435 monthly. 201 N. Washington, Joplin, 3 BR, garage, Full price $32,500. 417-359-4113. ...>MORE

LAKE FRONT MOBILE
Lake Front Mobile Grove, OK 1972 14 X 46 1 Bedroom, 1 bath lake front mobile home weekend getaway. Complete with furn...>MORE

INVESTORS OR START-UP
INVESTORS OR START-UP 1217 Central. $67500 2 bedroom, 1 bath, very nice,room to build more. See more at homesbyowner.co...>MORE

OPEN HOUSE
OPEN HOUSE 7/5/09 1:00-4:00 2281 sq. ft. Updated kitchen 4 br + bonus room 2 living areas Metal roof. Stapleton school ...>MORE

2-3 BR
Basement, newly remodeled, oak cabinets, nice wood floors, privacy fence. $79,200. 2525 N. Ozark. (417)483-0900....>MORE

See all ads

Other Cool Stuff

NASCAR
Indy Brick Yard 400, 7/26/09,
2 at $90. 417-483-1460.
...>MORE

YORKIE-CHORKIE
Yorkie-Chorkie, 6 weeks, weight 12 oz. and up. 417-358-4202....>MORE

2002 LOWE TAHITI
2002 Lowe Tahiti 22 Deck Boat with 2002 Johnson 150 hp motor, fully loaded and lake ready, $12,500. (620)856-5165 or (41...>MORE

24' BAJA OUTLAW
24’ BAJA Outlaw beautiful closed bow boat, 454 Mag, all options, excellent condition, low hours with 2005 trailer, $16,0...>MORE

INDEPENDENCE DAY BLOW OUT SALE

20% off all grocery items
20% off all cleaning supply items
20% off all refrigerators, dishwashers, deep
...>MORE

WANTED; 2006 OR NEWER BUMPER TRAILER
WANTED: 2006 or newer 28-29’ bumper hitch travel trailer with slide, in excellent condition. (417)235-3402....>MORE

SHIH-TZU PUPPIES
$125 each; Shih-tzu adults free to a good home, (417)439-5568....>MORE

LAB PUPPIES
lab puppies, AKC 1 chocolate male 1 chocolate female 1 black male 1 black female Master, senior, and junior hunters on ...>MORE

MINI SCHNAUZERS
8 weeks AKC house breaking underway, vet checked/healthy. rsfieker@yahoo.com 417-235-3168....>MORE

ATTEMPTING TO LOCATE
realitives of late father, Aziel Murphy, who married Maxine Steele, of Oklahoma, on June 10, 1929. Contact Tresa Collins...>MORE

See all ads


 

Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.CNHI Classified Advertising NetworkCNHI News Service
Associated Press content © 2009. All rights reserved. AP content may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Our site is powered by Zope and our Internet Yellow Pages site is powered by PremierGuide.
Some parts of our site may require you to download the Flash Player Plugin.
View our Privacy Policy
Advertiser index

 

 

The Joplin Globe Electronic Edition