NANCY, Part 2.

And then there were four.

    We were fortunate that Nancy was able to stay home with our kids.  She is absolutely fearless.  She kept her sister's four kids in addition to our five and years later she volunteered to cook for 100 kids and the faculty at church camp.  Her sister's kids and ours had just enough difference in the ages to look like they were all hers.  She would go to the grocery store with 9 little ones in tow. 


 I'm sure that the store employees breathed a sigh of relief to see that they were all well behaved and not a major threat to the peace.  They each had a "buddy" they were responsible for and to keep up with and it worked well.  If any ever got hard to control there was always the threat that they would have to go to the hot car or the cold car, depending on the season.  That also meant missing out on the animal crackers.  That wouldn't have happened but they didn't know that.  


    On their first birthday Nancy would make their birthday cake and sit it on the high chair in front of them.  It was their cake, after all.  The rest of us got a piece of what was left after the little hands grabbed a hand full.


 
   Nancy always included everyone possible in all activities and that included baking Christmas cookies.  Even now, it doesn't seem like Christmas until there are cutout cookies baked.  I'm reminded of all the little blond heads with their clothes looking like they had fallen into a flower barrel all gathered around the oven watching them bake.

    Our place became the gathering place for both her family and my family and even once, both at the same time.  She would fearlessly take on the job of hostess and this is still true with our "Banquet Hall".  The cars are backed out of the garage, the floor mopped, tables and chairs set up, and it is then time to turn on the garage chandelier.  I guess you don't absolutely have to have a chandelier but you have to admit that a garage with a chandelier adds a touch of class.



     Years ago, Nancy wanted Christmas morning present opening time to go somewhat longer than the kids running in and ripping everything open, loosing some things in the wrapping and it all being over so quickly.  She came up with "The Present Chair".  Each person sits in the chair and is handed a present to open.  Everyone else watches and doesn't play with anything.  They open it, read any card, thank whoever, and get a present from under the tree for the next one.  This has spread and some friends and neighbors now do the same thing. 

    Nancy has really given thought to Christmas traditions.  Everyone would pick up the presents with their name on them and shake them, feel of them, and try to figure out what they were. She cured that by using fake names or numbers on the cards to designate who they were for.  One year she used our telephone number as the base for the names.  Billy figured out that it was the telephone number and loudly yelled out from the upstairs balcony "It's our phone number"!  Nancy said that he was right but what did that really tell him.  It dawned on him that he still didn't know which number he was.

   Nancy came up with a sort of treasure hunt game that had slips of paper with clues on them for finding where the presents were.  They were sent from the attic to the basement to find all the goodies. 

   I added to her idea by using our new toy computer.  We had a new Commodore 64 computer and I spent over a month writing a program to select, at random, each of the kids to get a present for someone else.  The commodore had a voice program on it but it did speak like a robot.  Well, it was a robot.  The gifts were mixed in with things like "get your poor old daddy a cup of coffee", "time to eat breakfast", etc.

 Richway stores had a promotion going one Christmas and used large red plastic bags for large purchases.  We had enough for four kids but needed one more.  We knew that we had another fairly large purchase to make so Nancy went to Richway.  The cashier gave her some static about getting a big red bag so Nancy patiently explained to her that if she didn't get the red bag she would walk out and leave all the stuff on the counter.  She got the bag.  You may notice that Richway stores are gone but Nancy is still here.

  

MORE NANCY NEXT TIME.


    My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson