Donna's Muse Papers

My daddy loved Christmas. He loved the tree, the goodies, cards, and giving gifts. Mama loved Christmas, too. Her role was expressed mainly in the kitchen where she started making goodies the day after Thanksgiving, squirreling them away in the pantry until Christmas Eve. If company dropped by before Christmas, as they often did, she served them cookies or date nut bread with coffee. Gift giving is where Daddy excelled the most. Shopping for Mama, usually via his Sears and Roebuck account, was serious business for him. One year he bought her a whole wardrobe. I remember the two-piece outfit, a blue skirt and blue and black plaid jacket. I have a photo of her hugging Daddy with the outfit in her hand. It’s double exposed making it look my Mama had tinsel in her hair. And jewelry; he always gave her jewelry. One year a watch, another a gold ingot pendant. Mama wasn’t the only one he shopped for. I always got a gift picked out by Daddy, even after I was grown and married. That someti...

  I really wasn't into politics for most of my life. What I remember about politics was that Mama believed in voting for the man, not the party. Growing up almost everyone in my hometown were registered Democrat because there was some reason that had to do with voting in the primaries. I don’t know why to this day. But, in my idealistic 18-year-old brain I thought there should be a balance, so I registered Republican. And voted for Nixon! I worked at the poles and embroidered an elephant on my bell-bottomed blue jeans. Daddy defended Nixon through the whole Watergate thing, so I did too. I had no clue what it was all about. I don’t remember Mama voicing an opinion. She didn’t believe in arguing politics. It was forbidden at the dinner table. Fast forward past my young adult self. My husband was a union member and a shop-steward. He helped campaign for Kennedy. Our garage held stacks of yard signs and bumper stickers. He preached that the Democrats were for the working man. I di...