It’s Christmas 1957 in Mather and Bridget Vernon’s mother Mary Moon got a bride doll and a desk.
“Both were bought at the company store,” Bridget texts when she sent me family photos from that Christmas at Grandmother Arabelle’s. When presents were unwrapped, Uncle Rich and Uncle Harold stopped over and cousins Peggy and Cindy Moon were in from Virginia and cousin Carol Cain came from Ohio, to show off their what else? – new dolls.
Dolls were the must have gift for little girls in the 1950s, along with accessories. The hair drier on the stand beside the well coiffed dolly under Grandmother Arabelle’s tree is the avatar for this era of beauty shop pretends and the pre-Barbie dolls that little girls just had to have. (I got bride doll for Christmas myself, when I was in second grade and earned stars in school to stick on the refrigerator so Santa would bring it! So I totally understand the passion. She was beautiful! Her eyes opened and shut! When Cousin Tommy tried to poke them out with a stick, boy did I fix him! Shhhh! Don’t tell Santa.)
I found this blast from Christmas Past photo when I ran into Bridget on the Facebook group You were a Mather kid if you remember….. Others got into the conversation as we posted. Of all the photos she sent me, I fell in love with the tree and its pie plate with the candle on top, the buck standing in for Rudolph on the wall and the beautiful glass ornaments so easily broken over the years. And the doll and her hair drier under the tree.
Thirty-one comments and six shares later, Christmas in Mather was coming into focus, sandwiched between the mine explosions of 1928 and 1949 that left their marks on the families who lived here. As I read it occurred to me that when spring comes and the wildflowers start softening the edges it will be time to go to Mather and hear the rest of the gritty story that coal towns tell. But for now, it’s Christmas and Santa has always known the address of every kid in town.
Bob Rice Jr., from Scenery Hill remembers his father dressing up as Santa in the 1970s and visiting every home that signed up. “He had the kids names and some of the info parents gave him. My mother, me and my brothers would drive him around the whole town until he hit every house on the list.”
Bridget also has a photo of her mom with Santa at the company store in the 1950s. (I wish we had room for all those photos!)
“My mom grew up in Mather and I spent a lot of time there. My grandmother lived to be 97 and moved there when she was 21. I have fond memories of the drug store and getting penny candy and talking with Ruthann Broadwater. She made the best hamburgers.”
Deneen Nelson Rhodes stopped by to tell me “I can get you in touch with Annette Konsky Thistlethwaite. She is a Mather girl. We are also serving a Red “Port Style” wine named Liars Den at the Winery.”
What a nice way to end this story! Sometime this spring I’ll be writing all about the Liars Den in Mather and talking to folks like Josephine Retus Kois who was born in Mather in 1942 and has a lot of memories to share. Contact me if you want to be part of that story. But for now, I’ll be heading to Thistlethwaite Winery to buy a bottle of Liars Den for Christmas toasting with my friends.
It’s that time of year. Cheers!
