Friday 18 December 2015

Christmases past.


                            

Way back in the early 60's we used to spend our Christmases in a cottage that my people owned at a Welsh beauty spot known as The Old Racecourse, Nr Oswestry in Shropshire. The house stood on top of the very first Welsh hill, west of the Shropshire plains, and looked out over wonderful rolling countryside; its location was stunning.

Above shows what remains of the old Grandstand, with the cottage in the background.

I'm almost ashamed to say that the cottage was hardly ever used. We'd go for Christmas, and maybe a weekend in summer, but that was it. As a result the house was usually in a pretty bad state when we all arived; the heating never worked, and often bits of the house were missing due to the strong winds. But my mother had family in the area, so it was the perfect opportunity to get everyone together.

I remember that it used to snow a lot, and access wasn't easy; there were no tarmacked roads to the front door. We were often snowed in, and in early mornings the whole landscape would turn pink from the amazing sunrises.

Mother never did things by halves. The Turkey was often well over 25 lbs, and would have to be trimmed in order to fit in the small oven. Regardless, it would always arrive at table, perfectly cooked, exactly on time. She was a great cook.

She'd also buy far too many presents, but that's another matter.

We always had a pukka tree, plenty of decorations, a good log fire, and plenty of fresh air. There was even a friendly farmer's dog to accompany us on our long Offa's Dyke walks.

Life was good, and even thinking of it makes me want to turn the clock back.





35 comments:

  1. Being snowed in at Christmas with your family and lots of good food and presents sounds absolutely wonderful.

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    1. The snow would often drift up against the front door so that we had to dig ourselves out. All good fun.

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  2. I know the feelings you are having when telling us of this memory. Those special times with family stay in our hearts forever to be taken out and treasured for all of our lives.
    .

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    1. I think it's all the nostalgia that makes Christmas so appealing.

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  3. It sound's perfect Cro ..... I have very fond memories of Christmases past when the whole of the family would get together ..... we always had a real tree and, when I was a child, we had chicken for Christmas lunch as chicken was expensive and very special.
    Maybe we are selective with our memories but Christmas was a very happy and magical time for us too. XXXX

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    1. I don't remember a Christmas with my people when we didn't have Turkey. I think it's always been reasonably priced, and lasts for weeks! I have tried alternatives since (Goose, Duck, etc), but that smell of roasting Turkey on Christmas day is really special.

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    2. We mostly had Turkey but I remember having chicken a few times !!
      I would be hung, drawn and quartered by my family, the children especially, if we didn't have Turkey at Christmas ..... the combination of all of the elements of a Turkey Christmas dinner is something that you obviously only get once a year which makes it so special doesn't it Cro ? ! XXXX

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    3. Christmas just isn't the same for me without the Turkey.

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    4. We always had turkey too, as far as I can remember. When the whole family were gathered together, Grandmothers, Aunts, Uncles and cousins, it was the only poultry big enough to feed the hungry hoards ! A couple of chickens wouldn't have been enough to put even one small slice on everyone's plate, with none left over for supper and the weeks to come !

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  4. Lovely post Cro - ah memories, how wonderful they are. I know that area well and I agree the countryside is stunning. Most of my teaching was done in Wolverhampton and the area you speak of was in easy distance for a walking day out. Ah memories indeed.

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    1. It's certainly a beautiful area, especially for long walks.

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  5. sounds lovely. Less really is more. Tescos was crazy yesterday couples with 4 trolleys. pushing one pulling the other.

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    1. I'm just back from doing my weekend shopping, and the supermarket was extremely quiet.

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    2. Supermarkets are quiet here too, there isn't the panic buying that besets the UK from mid September onwards ! I often wonder what on earth they do with so much.

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  6. Are you planning on creating any "new" memories this Christmas?

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    1. It'll be just the two of us on Christmas day, so probably not. But who knows!

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  7. What a nice memory. It sounds like a nearly perfect Christmas for a young child.

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    1. They were wonderful times, but I was a bit older than just a 'young child'.

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  8. What a lovely memory for you to have. It does seem like the best Christmases have been the ones where things are tight and everyone works for one cause. How sad that there's nothing left of that little cottage but stones. I think you should do a drawing of it just as you remember it from Christmas. Of course, you just did with words!

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    1. The stones are what remains of the ancient racecourse grandstand, our cottage is in the background. However, the memories remain the same.

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  9. Sounds wonderful! My childhood memories are magical too, even though my dear Dad worked on Christmas Day, cooking the patients and staff Christmas lunches - he was the hospital chef! He would pop home in the morning to see what Father Christmas had left us, then finished by about 2pm in time to eat his lunch, watch the Queen on TV, then fall asleep in the armchair. In all my childhood, I can only remember ONE Christmas when he was there all day, and it was quite strange, but lovely.

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    1. My family were pretty traditional in that respect. Father was always there, trying to avoid the children, etc.

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  10. I spent quite a lot of my childhood holidays, and some in the early '60s too, in my Godfather's wee holiday home near Pantymwyn near Mold and they were magical times. I'm not sure that the simple life has quite the same appeal these days although it might be good to try it and see.

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    1. Not that far away from our cottage. We still try to live 'the simple life', but we do have TV, computers, and telephone, etc.

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  11. What beautiful memories. Too bad you can't revisit that place and spend more time there. Then again, memories relived in one's minds are often far better than trying to relive them in reality.

    Oops, I inadvertently deleted your comment on my post. I just did a "remove forever" delete on the comment you'd already deleted, and the other comment disappeared, too! Dang it.

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  12. I was going to do a post about Christmas nostalgia last night and then Mourinho got the sack so I didn't.

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  14. Both my hubs and I remember our moms cooking 30lb birds...they would be up some time in the night to put them in the oven.

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    1. I think we went up to 27 lbs.... huge great things.

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