A Magical Time By Irene

A Magical Time

As my mind goes back to my growing-up days in Portland, Oregon, I think of how everything seemed bigger, or shinier than today. Christmas shopping time was an especially magical time for me. Portland was a city of beautiful greenery, white capped mountains in the distance, the Willamette River which divided the city and many, many bridges.

I was eleven, Jack was twelve and Tom about nine years old. Mike was only about five years old so he was too young to go shopping. The year was around 1948. Mother and Daddy would give each of us five dollars for shopping, but I was clever enough to save my allowance for one or two months so I always had more to spend.

In the early evening we would walk the two blocks to the trolley bus stop where we caught the Eastmorland bus which took us over the Hawthorne Bridge to downtown Portland. A misty rain would be falling because, of course, winter in Portland usually meant rain. The wet downtown streets gleamed luminous and golden in the old-fashioned streetlights. On certain street corners we could see the bubbling drinking fountains which were on many downtown streets. Streetcars and trolley buses rumbled past taking people home from work or bringing them downtown to shop.

The sidewalks and stores were crammed full of shoppers. Meier and Frank and Lipman’s, the big department stores, seemed to be in competition which each other to see who could create the most sparkling Christmas windows. Those stores had wonderful gifts but all of our shopping was done at Newberry’s, Kress’ and Woolworth’s, the “dime stores” that disappeared from the American scene in the 1960’s.

We would agree on a time and place to meet when were finished so that we could shop in secret for our gifts for each family member. I walked up down every aisle in each store looking for just the perfect present for everyone. I remember once finding a pretty teacup and saucer for my mother. She still has it in her china cabinet along with some lovely real china ones.

Tom usually came home every year with a Slinky as a present for all of us kids to share because he was fascinated with the way Slinkys walked down the stairs.

Jack would buy one big box of Chocolate Covered Cherries for everyone to share. We would always complain because he was the only one in the house who even liked Chocolate covered Cherries.

After our shopping was finished, we met at our assigned place, rode the trolley bus back to our stop and walked home. We each grabbed wrapping paper, ribbon and tape, went to a private spot in the house, wrapped our gifts and placed them under the tree where they teased and tantalized us until Christmas morning.

By Irene
Written February 2003
Revised June 23, 2008

This is a delightful story about a family during the holidays in Portland (love it there). I don't know about you, but I could see all the beautiful decorations dancing before me. And I love the personal detail of how each gift had a special meaning. What fun. I can't wait until Christmas! Ah, it's Christmas in July.

Copyright © 2008 by The Write Workshop. All rights reserved.