Theme
Christmas
Barbara's Chapter
Christmas Goodies and Mom's Handmade Ornaments
Christmas was Mom's favorite holiday. She decorated every room and made cookies or candy daily from Thanksgiving onward, storing them on the tiny back porch beside her small bottles of Pepsi. Christmas Eve morning brought thin slices of fried cornmeal mush. In the evenings she made distinctive Christmas balls, which Barbara still hangs on her tree. Barbara misses Mom most at Christmas.
Barbara's Chapter
Daddy’s Lap, Garden, and Backyard Workshop
Barbara warmly remembers curling up in Daddy's lap and describes his old-time remedies, including cigarette smoke for earaches, hot lemonade with booze, Samon Salve, and an overpowering experiment with menthol crystals in a furnace-connected vaporizer. Family activities included drag races, wrestling, golf, gathering nuts and grapes, and working hard in the garden and orchard. She recalls reading in an apple tree, his embarrassment-inducing old cars, his objections to girls attending college, Friday grocery and library trips, Christmas gifts, singing, trading, and inventive repairs. She also remembers helping him adjust and repair the television and his name for homes south of Coal Town Road: “Frogtown.”
Diana's Chapter · Through January 28th, 1995, and afterward
Cherished Ornaments and the Comfort of White Birds
Diana remembers Lee's warmth, generosity, love of babies, and reverent annual unpacking of Mom's Christmas ornaments, especially the shamrock and gold fish ornaments she made him. Lee died of lung cancer on January 28th, 1995, Mom's birthday. Two hours before his death, Diana watched white birds fishing in the lake behind their home and felt Mom was coming to take Lee with her. White birds continued to bring Diana comfort in her grief.
Diana's Chapter · 1968 and early childhood
Welcoming Kelly and Raising a Florida Baby
Diana recalls her delight in pregnancy and Kelly’s birth, her mother’s help, and Lee’s tender care for their baby. Kelly disliked clothes and shoes. During a holiday visit to Moline, she refused to walk in the snow, then undressed indoors and was found dancing on the back porch singing “coolding!”
Dee's Chapter
Christmas Cookies, Stocking Oranges, and a House Full of Gifts
Dee recalls a Christmas season filled with Mom's cookies, candies, fudge, and carefully chosen gifts. Dad bought the real tree at the last minute; Dee speculates that freshness and fire safety were his reasons. Bernie decorated outstanding cookies and called the children to the window to see Santa, who was always gone before they arrived. Daddy filled stockings with large oranges from Lagomarcino’s, especially treasured during wartime scarcity. Dee carried the fruit tradition forward with Susy and her grandchildren. Carol's Christmas Eve birthday brought a homemade angel food cake, with the leftover yolks used for noodles served with chicken over mashed potatoes. Christmas gifts included homemade clothing, dolls, sleds, BB guns, and school-made presents. Daddy continued Grampa's gift of twelve pairs of stockings to Mom after Grampa died. Dad's insistence on slowly fried mush and his breakfast invitations added to Mom's work while she also prepared turkey dinner. After Iris married, the growing family gathered at her larger house on Christmas Eve, where gifts piled toward the ceiling.
Dee's Chapter · After Dad died
Pine Cones and Christmas Treasures
After Dad's death, Mom developed her craftwork, turning the basement into a hobby shop for pinecone wreaths and Nature Trees. Carol and the narrator took their children along to gather natural materials with her. The narrator still collects pine cones for the memories, despite Susy's restraint. Mom later made Christmas ornaments for family and friends, carefully providing one for everyone to choose during holiday visits. A newspaper featured her crafts and tree. The ornaments remain precious reminders of her generosity and love of hard work.
Dee's Chapter
A Loving Toast to Bob
Dee celebrates Robert Ray Guild in a playful, affectionate poem recalling his homemade wine, snow igloo, marriage to his high school sweetheart, dancing with Sue, successful business, coast-to-coast travels, and welcoming home. She praises his helpfulness and loyalty while teasing him about golf, gardening, and pistachios, closing with a wish that he remarry and a toast in his honor.
Carol's Chapter · 1938 and infancy
A Christmas Eve Baby in a Wicker Basket
After her mother began having contractions while trimming the Christmas tree, Carol was born on Christmas Eve 1938 in Moline. Her father named her Carol Mae for the season. She joined Iris, Bobby and Bernie at the family's apartment; the later births of Delores, Diana and Barbara made her the middle child. Remembered as a very small baby, she was carried on a pillow and kept in a wicker basket on a bedroom shelf beyond her brothers' reach.
Carol's Chapter
Christmas Records, Boxes of Goodies, and Mom's Fruitcake
Carol recalls her mother playing favorite Christmas records and baking from just after Thanksgiving until Christmas. The cold back porch served as a freezer for the treats. After the children left home, their mother mailed them large boxes of cookies, candy, and breads. Her annual Depression Fruitcake was made early, repeatedly soaked in brandy, baked in assorted containers, and finished with glaze and candied fruit. Carol and her father dearly loved it.
Carol's Chapter
Christmas Trees, Stocking Treats, and Family Togetherness
Carol recalls Daddy waiting until close to Christmas to buy inexpensive trees, once paying fifty cents, and drilling holes to rearrange branches. The family decorated with paper chains, popcorn, ornaments, saved tinsel, and fiberglass angel hair that made their skin itch. Their everyday socks held fruit, walnuts, and candy; they later learned Daddy bought the biggest apples and oranges at Lagomarcino’s. He traditionally gave Mom two pairs of nylon stockings. Larger family gatherings moved to Iris and Bill’s for Christmas Eve. Christmas was Mom’s favorite holiday: after the children left home, she usually put up her tree by early December, shopped with Barb in Normal, and enjoyed specialty shops and tearoom lunches. Norm took the group to the Apple Barn for apples and cider. Mom also finished ornament balls at Barb’s and taught Amy and Jenny to make them. Carol believed Mom especially loved the holiday because it brought the whole family together.
Carol's Chapter
Morning Crochet and Keepsakes of Love
Carol remembers watching Mom crochet at the kitchen table between Daddy's departure for work and the children's rising for school. Mom made hundreds of household pieces, individually designed Christmas ornaments, wall hangings, wreaths, and painted bread dough figures with Diana. Carol sees these crafts as expressions of creativity and treasures even the ornaments that have faded or fallen apart.
Carol's Chapter · Christmas Eve, 1967–May 23, 1968
Caring for Daddy Through His Last Months
Daddy suffered a stroke on Christmas Eve, 1967. Not realizing its seriousness, the family went to Iris and Bill's while Mom stayed with him. After Mom called Iris to report that he was worse, Lee and Bob took him to the hospital. Following two weeks there, his agitation prompted a search for other care. The family rejected St. Anthony's Hospital in Rock Island because patients were smoking while Daddy struggled to breathe. Mom tried caring for him at home with help from the girls and daily visits from Virginia, but the burden became exhausting. He was eventually taken to East Moline State Hospital. He died at sixty-three on May 23, 1968, surrounded by Mom and all the children, and is buried next to Mom at Riverside Cemetery in Moline, Illinois.
Carol's Chapter · 1993–present
Phase Two: Sunshine, Church Friends, and Swans
After retiring from the Rock Island Arsenal in October 1993, Carol describes moving to Florida in July 1995 and enjoying a slower life in North Port. Church friendships, reading, keyboard playing, and Christmas ornament making fill her retirement. A swan collection begun with Charlie's anniversary gifts has grown to more than one hundred through gifts from family and friends.
Carol's Chapter
A Christmas Visit Captured in Family Portraits
Bernie borrowed a Leica camera to photograph a new place in San Francisco, then brought it home to Moline at Christmas. Using orange and green fabric tacked up in the girls’ bedroom as a backdrop, Bernie photographed the family. A portrait of Bernie taken by high school chum Jerry Edlund during the same trip completed the folio. Later on the family portrait day, the family celebrated Carol’s 23rd birthday. Bernie treasured how clearly the portraits revealed everyone’s personality.
Bob's Chapter
A Mother's Everyday Care and Treasured Handwork
Robert remembers his extraordinary mother's work raising seven children with help from her dad, Iris, and neighbors. Childhood in the four-room house on 39th Street included Saturday baths in a galvanized kitchen tub, an outhouse, clean school clothes, cocoa with a peanut butter sandwich, and repeatedly reused lunch bags. His mother made thirteen-egg angel food birthday cakes, tended and canned a large garden's harvest, and silently taught him to pick beans thoroughly by collecting three more buckets after he said he was finished. He treasures her doilies, Christmas ornament balls, and Santa dolls; his boys Steve and Brian also have ornaments.
Bernie's Chapter
Railroad Treasures and Childhood Days by the River
In a sequence of childhood memories, the narrator recalls locomotives, Grampa's walks to kindergarten, gathering fallen coal for Mommy's stove, and finding treasures near the foundry. He remembers his fifth birthday, first-grade lessons, a printing prize, and a teacher locking out Arnold for lateness. Life in a big white house includes celebrations, baby Carol's arrival while Mommy is sick, Mommy returning with Baby Delores, games with Bobby and Iris, penny treats, a tavern visit, May baskets, and the fascination of a river the children are forbidden to approach.
Bernie's Chapter
Long Winter Rides Through the Big Woods
Bernard recalls eagerly awaiting Christmas and snow, and the transformed winter landscape of Ferry’s Woods. He describes approaching the woods by the Frys' farm and navigating a steep, winding sled run with Bob on their shared Christmas Flexible Flyer. They extended their rides onto a frozen creek until a log near a small pond stopped them; the long climb back in heavy winter clothing made this hard play.
Bernie's Chapter · 1946 and later childhood and high school years
Small Gifts, Family Pride, and Big Dreams
A modest tenth-birthday gift made Bernard feel poor, especially beside Billy Johnson's new bicycle. His parents encouraged hard work and ambition, while Mom insisted the children should be proud of themselves and dreamed of travel. Inclusion in Jenny Swanson's luncheon for poor children wounded his pride. In high school he hid his modest home from wealthy friends, a choice he later regretted.
Iris's Chapter
Precious Spare Time Filled with Creativity and Play
Iris describes her love of designing Christmas trees, decorating their stores, and helping operate the stores' gift shops. Her many leisure pursuits include sports, bird watching, singing learned from Daddy, dancing, and recently begun ceramics. She crochets gifts, including an Afghan for every family member, and reads fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, fairy tales, and books about angels.
Iris's Chapter
A Christmas Box to Treasure
Bill remembered Ethel Guild as a friend and someone he enjoyed talking with. At Christmas she prepared a special box of candy and cookies for him, which he hid under his bed to avoid sharing. He fondly recalled her other baking and the pleasure of visiting her house.
History of the Guild Family · School years–1988
Brownie’s Dancing Days and a Lifetime of Mothering
Despite grief at home and being refused a college education, Ethel found happiness in friends, dancing, and work. Mary Hill introduced her to Floyd, whom she married in 1928. Together they raised seven children, while Ethel survived a serious goiter and worked several jobs. In widowhood she enjoyed crafts, cards, grandchildren, and travel, including a cherished 1979 European holiday funded by Bernie. She died during a visit to Diana in 1988, remembered for her unqualified love.
History of the Guild Family · After Floyd’s death–1988
Cards, Christmas Ornaments, and a Long-Awaited European Journey
Widowed Ethel maintained a full life of handcrafts, Christmas ornament making, evening cards and helping family members after divorces. She visited Diana in Florida annually. In 1979 Bernie fulfilled her dream of Europe with a visit to Carol, Charlie and Chris in Mainz and a family trip to Denmark. Ethel died during her 1988 Florida visit and was buried beside Floyd, with an incorrect birth year on her headstone that had never troubled her.