Christmas at the Kegley's- Thanks brother Jim!

From: Jim Kegley

Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 12:27 AM

To: Scioto Voice

High Notes 12-22-2011

On Christmas, 1949, there were still seven Kegley kids living at 1227 McConnell Avenue, Portsmouth.   Christmas with a houseful of eight kids, ages one, Sandy, born in 1948, up to Sam, 17, born in 1932, was a big deal. My brother, Sam 17, was an usher at the old Ohio Theatre in New Boston, and George and I shared the Times newspaper Route 107, which included McConnell Avenue, and Grant Street, from Hutchins to Grandview, and Highland from Hutchins to McConnell. We had all attended Highland School, and Mom and Dad had bought the two-story seven-room house in 1941.

That was one of the years we drove in Dad’s Hudson out to Candy Run, Lucasville, to Mom’s sister Pearl’s, (Mrs. Floyd Miller) small farm and cut down our large nine-foot tall white pine Christmas tree. Dad had to haul it home in his home-made wooden trailer. I can remember it was a cold day on Candy Run, and their house was warm with the wood-burning space heater roaring in the living room.

That was the year I had seen some of my ten-year old school mates wearing those ankle-high combat-style boots with the knife pouch mounted in a snap-sheath on the outside of the right shoe. The sheath contained a small three-inch long, pearlized white-plastic handled hunting-style knife.

Those boots were my dream Christmas present for 1949; after-all we kids were still fighting those dirty Nazis and Japs, in our minds. My brother Forest (Bud) was soon to be in the army, and stationed inGermany, in 1949-50, and Sam would be drafted and was to be in Japan, by 1953. I had seen that Harry Delotell, who owned Harry’s Department Store at 2025 11^th Street, had them in stock when my Dad had taken a few of us to buy our school shoes.

Dad, along with his railroad brakeman/conductor’s job was also a refrigeration repairman, and a Mason work-shoe salesman on the side. Mason did not sell kid’s shoes at that time, so I made my appeal for the combat boots through my Mom.

In those days, I slept in a bunk bed bottom, while younger brother, Paul five, slept on top. George and Sam shared the double bed, and the girls; Mary Lou, eight, Sharon, six, and Sandy, slept in the front bedroom.

Our house on McConnell was still heated with coal, and I can remember running down our steps in my housecoat to be the first one at the down-stairs heat-register, and my robe billowing, as the heat would blow. I wasn’t allowed to go into the front living-room where we had our tree and presents, until the rest of the family were down. As you can imagine it was a mad-house that morning, and my five-year-old brother Paul got his black cowboy hat, and my sister, Mary Lou, my eight-year-old sister, got a fringy cowgirl outfit. I don’t remember what Sharon, my three-year old sister got, nor do I remember what George or Sam got, but I do know that I got my longed-for boots.

What I can’t seem to understand, is how?

How did my Mom and Dad manage to treat all of their brood as if they were special?

All I know is they certainly did it, because I know that 1949 year was a wonderful Christmas at our house.

I just wish everybody could have Christmases to be as much fun as were ours at 1227 McConnell Avenue, Portsmouth.

Jim

Thanks Jim!

Excellent rememberances! Christmas was always special at our house as it has been throughout America’s existence. The Sears Roebuck catalog got a lot of business from Forest and Mary Kegley. I remember one Christmas when Bud and I each received a beautiful cream and white wagon. At two years difference in age, they could hardly give one without the other. We know now, as adults, how they must have struggled with all the bills, and then their big annual expenditures, other than normal living costs, were Christmas presents for all of the kids. In 1949, Ted, Joan, and Bud probably weren’t living at home. Sandy, our youngest was a one year old. Bud graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1948 and I would soon graduate in June, 1950. It was probably very nearly the peak for all kids home at once. Ted’s wife, Helen Keyser, Joan’s husband, James Dexter White and the married ones’ kids, and Bud’s girl friend, Norma Newman, and my girl friend, Jeanette Weddington, seemed already part of the family. That made for a large houseful of fun at Christmas.

I had a sad experience this past week in remembering Uncle Floyd’s and Aunt Pearl Miller’s Candy run visits by our clan. I hadn’t checked on our cousin, Charlotte Miller Tosher, for the last couple of years so I “switchboard.com” checked for her husband John. There were a couple of addresses and one was not ‘live’. I left a message one morning and a younger John, his son, called me back later. John had died last September and Jeanie and I missed reading his obituary. Charlotte was still living in Summit Traces nursing home near Bexley, but only with very assisted care in being fed and dressed by attendants. I called her brother Walter, living in Lucasville. He said that Charlotte doesn’t recognize him on visits. Their sister, Agnes Chiccini (SP?), a widow for a few years, lives in California. Walt is a widower now for a couple of years and he and Agnes got together for a vacation in Australia and New Zealand last summer. Anyway, I visited Charlotte, 90 now, and she didn’t recognize me, although I mentioned our dad’s and mother’s by name, her service in WW II as a Navy Wave, and the Kegleys’ visits for Christmas trees and their pony, Beauty, we all loved. Her eyes opened; however, I had neither a sign that she saw me nor that she knew I was talking.

We, a blue collar family which so populated Portsmouth then, were nourished in a wonderful home. Portsmouth has since lost the steel mill, most of the railroad employment, and two great shoe factories. Goodyear Atomic came in and helped the local economy of Southeastern Ohio for a few years, but that too is now gone. Those blue collar jobs kept those houses in good repair and families fed all over that part of Ohio. Is there any wonder our P’Town lady is showing her age?

I just offered a prayer for Portsmouth and for those who are keeping the lady going, such as you and Paul from the Kegley family. So many of the rest of us have moved or passed away.

Sam