Page A4 / The Joan De Arc Crusader / Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Front Page A1 / Editorials A2 / Tales from Sahuaro School A3 / Crossword A5

Crusader Christmas Interview: Julie Mitchell Munday

By J. Bueker

Editor’s Note: Original Avenue residents, The Mitchell family has maintained a presence at 3231 for almost 60 years. I chatted recently with Julie Mitchell Munday about her recollections of Christmases past on Joan De Arc.

John: What do you remember about Christmas on Joan De Arc? Any favorite or outstanding memories?

Julie: We always had a tree and the same ornaments, which are now all mine, including some with "angel hair" (spun glass) which I don't let the kids touch.  Also some hand painted eggs---I think I still have half of the dozen.  And a bell which hung from the ceiling that played tinny tunes. 

John:  Did the Mitchells have any particular holiday traditions or customs you followed?

Julie: Mom made cardamom cake, a specialty of Dad's Norwegian mother. I can still smell that, and smile. 

John: Do you remember any of the Christmas programs or class parties at Sahuaro?

Julie: Nope, don't remember much about school parties or what happened in the "hood." It was all about the presents! 

John:  What kind of gifts do you remember Santa bringing you?

Julie: Kathy and I wanted toys, but got lots of clothes. Grandma Urton was a home ec teacher and supreme seamstress, and Aunt Ruthmary knitted and crocheted.  One year we got Chatty Cathys, notable for their sheer size!  And neat Barbie clothes--one set from the swinging sixties was put together by ironing the glued edges. 

Then there's the sock monkey story.  I was six years old, and we were NOT ALLOWED to go look at the stockings or presents until the parents got up.  But one year I snuck out of bed about 3 a.m. into the dark room and saw the most hideous thing I had ever seen sticking up out of my stocking-----a hand knitted sock monkey (from Grandma Urton). I shrieked and got out of there fast!  To this day I feel a sick thrill when I see a sock monkey, until I remember why!  And I never snuck out to look at the presents again.

John: Well I do hope you learned your lesson, young lady. Thank you Julie and Merry Christmas!

__________________________________________________________

Every single Christmas: The legendary Life Savers Sweet Story

By J. Bueker

     I’ve paused in this space periodically o’er the years wistfully to reminisce about my illustrious Joan De Arc Christmas gifts: my beloved Sears reflector telescope, the off-brand but curiously fun electric football game, the sublimely cool street hockey gear. Such were the landmark childhood gifts that would shape my very conception of what constitutes a Christmas, and yet it occurs to me that my siblings and I were lavished with a variety of less notable offerings on Christmas morn that nevertheless remain equally quintessential to my yuletide retrospection.
     Typical examples for me included such items as footballs and basketballs, books, transistor radios, watches, action figures, sundry articles of clothing and the like. These relatively minor gifts varied significantly from year to year, adding a pleasing element of surprise to the otherwise predictable Christmas Day proceedings, given our usual foreknowledge of what the big present was going to be (or so we thought).
     Yet there was a particular one of these lesser Christmas gifts that all of us received annually with perfect consistency and predictability. One intrepid little item that we were all absolutely 100% assured of receiving each year with complete metaphysical certainty, regardless of any other variable factors or vicissitudes of life: the Life Savers Sweet Story books. Every Christmas, without exception, every member of the family was blessed with this iconic little holiday gift whether we liked it or not.
     Well I certainly liked it. Sure, it was just a small cardboard box cleverly designed to sort of resemble a book and containing a dozen rolls of a fairly boring brand of candy, but I found something genuinely magical about the Sweet Story book. I actually loved the whole idea of it, and this despite the fact I was never a huge Life Savers fan. I was probably attracted to the grand holiday tradition of it all, for which I’m a well-known sap, but the Sweet Story was also an undeniably adept marketing gimmick that nimbly endured the test of time.
     Life Savers was still an exceptionally popular candy back in those days. At its zenith in the 1960s, the brand boasted over 40 different flavors, although only 12 or so were made available at any given time. The Christmas Sweet Story books first appeared in the late 1940s, and so by the time we started receiving them on Joan De Arc about 20 years later, they were already a well-established Christmas stocking stuffer tradition.
     Sweet Story book customs soon emerged at 3219. One common practice was the trading of rolls with other family members in accordance with one’s own flavor preferences. My father’s pre-eminent choice for instance was Butter Rum, which I personally wasn’t crazy about and was happy to trade away for an extra roll of Five Flavors. I genuinely enjoyed the fruity taste of those Five Flavor discs, but part of the fun of eating Five Flavors was that you never knew what variety would appear next in line as you tore your way through the roll. It was intriguing, you know?
     I certainly can’t speak for my mother’s train of thought in buying these Life Savers books for us each and every year without fail, but I suspect it had something to do with the simple convenience of the gift: it was a quick and easy no-brainer shopping trip to Revco. Barbara always did such a splendid job of assembling a wonderful array of Christmas goodies for her family each year that I suppose she can be excused for occasionally taking the path of least resistance. On the other hand, perhaps she enjoyed the tradition of the Life Savers Sweet Story just as much as her youngest child did.
     They’re still around, but sadly the Life Savers Sweet Storybook, as it is now called, has faded to but a wispy shadow of its former grandeur. In our time a 12-pack of all different flavors, the Storybook has receded over the years in both quantity and variety, and is now but a measly half dozen rolls, all of them Five Flavors. And the scoundrels have even tampered with those legendary five flavors, replacing lemon and lime at some point with raspberry and watermelon. Sacrilege.
     Things have gotten so bad in recent years that the Sweet Storybook has managed to make some online “Top Ten Worst Christmas Candies” lists, a very sad fall from grace indeed. Let us hope Wrigley, the current caretakers of this historic candy brand, will soon regain their senses (not to mention their Christmas spirit) and restore something resembling the traditional Life Saver Sweet Story books of yore. If and when they do, I’d like to receive one every year please.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________ JDA

Front Page A1 / Editorials A2 / Tales from Sahuaro School A3 / Crossword A5