Show Christmas Christinas Is IsA IsA A Toy Cupboard L t L By FLORENCE BITTNER BIITNER Adults look back on Christmas Christmas Christmas Christ Christ- mas with a universal glow Almost everyone remembers a special place or time or event or person and to them that is Christmas TO ME Christmas is a atoy atoy atoy toy cupboard I was nine that year too big to play house except when my more sophisticated friends weren't around but I was a late bloomer I loved to play playhouse playhouse playhouse house way up into my teens but I had never had a proper playhouse My ry father was in the process of building a flour mill in the back acre of our four acre lot in the small southern Utah town where I lived my child child- hood A carpenter was working working working work work- ing on the mill and I followed followed followed fol fol- fol- fol lowed him every afternoon grabbing every stray scrap of umber lumber to use in making a pl playhouse I COLLECTED crates and nail kegs and pieces of tar tarpaper tarpaper tarpaper paper and in an ari unused corner corner corner cor cor- ner of the basement of the new newmill newmill newmill mill I had a lovely playhouse play play- house As I watched the carpenter at one of his jobs one day it began to look like he was making a cupboard and it was small for anything in inthe inthe inthe the mill EVERYDAY after school I ran all the way home and went to the mill to see how Mr Larsen was coming on the cupboard It had two doors on top with white china knobs a sideboard just my height two drawers with white knobs and two doors underneath It was the most beautiful cupboard ever built and I longed for that masterpiece with unconcealed envy Of course there was no of my ever getting ettin it The Ninth Ward Primary officers and teachers and partners held their annual Christmas dinner party at atthe atthe atthe the Kaysville Stake house on Dec 11 Bishop and Mrs Don Edwards Edwards Edwards Ed Ed- wards visited Sunday in American American American Amer Amer- ican Fork with his parents Mr and Mrs Philo Edwards Mr and Mrs Hooper Salt Lake City were Sunday visitors of her mother Mrs Olive it fo Robins Professor of sor Howard Howar Putnam Dixie College St. St George brought his choir to Salt Lake to sing at the State Capitol on Thursday and present a concert in Bountiful Bountiful Bountiful Boun Boun- on Friday evening while Professor Putnam was wasa a Thursday and Friday overnight guest at the home of his sister Mr and Mrs Clarence Meacham Mrs Luella Bateman had the misfortune of falling at ather ather ather her home and is confined to the South Davis Community Hospital where she is undergoing undergoing undergoing under under- going treatment Mr and Mrs Douglas Cheney and children Mitchell and Alex of Citrus Heights Calif will arrive to spend Christmas and the holi holi- days with his parents Mr and Mrs Clark Cheney and other relatives and friends The Kaysville Eleventh and Twelfth l wards MIA will hold holda a joint Christmas dinner and games Saturday evening at atthe atthe atthe the home of Mr and Mrs Frank Romney Guests will include MIA officers teachers and part part- ners Approximately 60 guests will attend Mr Larsen had made it for his own little girl and I hated that girl whom I had never met I found orange crates and begged my father to help me put together a cupboard but he was always too busy but he kept promising promising promising promis promis- ing he would help me as soon as he got a minute MY CHRISTMAS list was short that year and adamant I really didn't believe in Santa Claus Glaus anymore but I was too shrewd to let on to my parents I was wise to them and I figured it might make my father understand how desperate desperate desperate des des- I was about that cup cup- board We had our own way of ofFending Fending ending letters to Santa CI Claus Glaus us We would write what we wanted on a scrap of paper stick it lightly on the end of the stove poker and pass it carefully through the fire hithe in iii inthe the and if our wish was to be granted the draft would catch the note off the poker and up the chimney it went Sometimes I found it iton iton iton on the ground outside but mother assured me the elves read it anyhow AT NINE I knew mother and day were all the elves I needed but I sent reams of notes up the chimney knowing that they would see and read some of them I wasn't subtle but time was slipping away and Mr Larsen Larsen Larsen Lar Lar- sen had finished the cupboard I just couldn't let his little girl have it I needed it it Christmas Eve my Father assured me Mr Larsen had taken the cupboard home with him and that is the only time tune I remember crying on Christmas Eve I didn't even want to get out of bed Christmas Christmas Christmas Christ Christ- mas morning but in a family of seven children no one sleeps I WENT into the living room where we dressed behind the and no one could have anything from under the tree until everyone was dressed I know what fairyland looks like It is the living room on Christmas morning where the only light comes from the tree and the glow on childrens children's faces THAT MORNING there was no glow on my face because there was no cupboard Nothing Nothing Nothing Noth Noth- ing else could take its place and it wasn't there I was too big to cry but when your heart is broken it doesn't matter who sees My Dad wasn't a hugger but I remember how he put his arm around me and led me to the kitchen door which was open He closed it and there behind the door was the cupboard all green and white and mine IVE I'VE HAD cupboards by the dozens and more Christmas mornings than Ill I'll admit but mention the spirit of Christmas to me and I can see it and feel it and tell its substance and shape and remember how the small loaf of bread mother had baked sat just so on the sideboard and how the play dishes were arranged on the shelves Ive I've often wondered what happened to it I guess I just played it to bits but if I had one thing to pass on to my own little girl it should have been that cup cup- board MAYBE I did Maybe she had her own special Christmas cupboard I must remember to ask her |