A Depression Era Christmas

 

“Someday” is what most of us say when it comes to going through mementos left behind by parents.  Well, that “someday” came to me when I went through the boxes of items left behind by my husband’s parents. Among the “treasures” I found was a story/letter written to Paul and Hilda Burnett by Paul’s Aunt Ellen in 1987. Paul is the 8-year-old mentioned. Vera and Jim are his parents. Buel his uncle, Vera’s brother.

  

Red Handlebars – A Depression Era Christmas
By Ellen Payne
 

          In looking back through the years, I remember that lack of money didn’t stop the enthusiasm for making the best of things. Times were hard during the Great Depression but we weren’t willing to give up and our sense of humor always stayed with us.

         During the Christmas season of 1932, I was living with my future sister-in-law, Vera and her husband Jim, in Long Beach. My fiancé Buel and I were both professional dancers and were getting a dance act together at the time when the bottom was falling out of show business. Theaters and night clubs were closing by the dozen and backers were no longer around. 

Buel and Ellen

     As Christmas neared, we were all very broke. The only one who could count on a gift was Paul, Vera and Jim’s eight-year-old son, who was still pretending he believed in Santa Claus. In the spirit of the season, the rest of us facetiously made out a fantasy list of our desires. My Buel concluded his by specifying that it had to have “RED HANDLEBARS.”

      By Christmas Eve we had managed to find money to buy a little Christmas tree, but there were no gifts to place underneath, except those that Santa would later bring Paul. There was a promise, however, of a good meal for Christmas day for which we were all grateful, knowing that Grandma and Grandpa would be able to join us.

       Young Paul was getting very excited about the night to come. With Jim distracting Paul, Buel sneaked around the house, rang the doorbell, and in a disguised voice, loud enough for Paul to hear, indicated that Santa was in the neighborhood and would come later when all the children were asleep. I never saw a little boy, who usually was reluctant to go to bed, jump into bed so fast as he heard the New England sleigh bells, which Buel jingled as he went down the street.

Things looked bleak,
for Buel and Ellen
when the club failed to open.
Hollywood Citizen
 News 10/5/1932

          With the young one in bed, the adults got busy. Out came a train and a few other toys. The men became so involved in setting up the train, like little boys themselves, they had to be reminded they could ‘play train’ with Paul in the morning.

          The Christmas spirit overwhelmed us, and we four decided to look around the house for things to wrap for each other, to put under the tree for laughs.   

        While the others were busy, I took a flashlight and went to the garage to see if I could find something useful there. It was like most garages filled with boxes, tools and cast offs. Along one of the walls, behind a carton, I saw an old well-used, outgrown scooter, handles still on it. A search through paint cans revealed a partial can of red, quick dry enamel. I was in luck! Before I went into the house, I spotted an old golf bag and some golf shoes which Jim hadn’t used for months because he was putting all his time into starting an appraisal business. In one pocket were some tees, so an idea formed quickly as I returned to the house.

        Vera and Buel were wrapping their treasures and were soon finished, so I said goodnight to Buel, who lived a block away. I reminded him how much earlier than usual Paul would probably get up, and said to expect an early morning phone call to start the beginning of what would most certainly be a long, but enjoyable, day.

      As Vera joined Jim for a much needed rest, I brought my finds into the house, painted the scooter handles, wrapped the golf shoes and tees and put verses on the tags for the finishing touches. I had found a new, forgotten baking pan in a little used cupboard, so that finished my list of gifts.

       At last, everything was quiet but I don’t think we got much sleep before daylight when a little voice said “Momma, can we get up now?”

        A call to Buel, and he was there within minutes. We watched Paul delightedly set the train into motion and look over the other little toys waiting for him, he was a happy little boy.

    Many laughs ensued with the usual things we found to exchange, and our attempts at poetry. I received an embroidery hoop from Vera and Jim with a home-made picture drawn on a piece of white cloth stretched on it and a few strands of varicolored thread. The verse attached read:

Now go ahead and sew while we’re playing Bridge,

You like to be the Dummy

But you too still, seem bound to win

Guess we’d have more luck with Rummy.

 

       The pan I wrapped for Vera had this one on it:

What do ya know, I found this pan

And with it there’s a plan

Your cakes so delicious please your man

As well as we, who are also your fans.

 

       For Jim, who was surprised to see his old shoes and tees:

Meet your old shoes and golfing tees,

Tis long since you have used them

Relax for awhile, go on a spree

We’ll cover you ‘till 5 p.m.

 

     Buel had spied the red handlebars behind a big chair. Hanging on them was this little blurb:

Since I know that you have no car.

And you have big plans to go so far

Use this scooter to get your thar

It has for sure, RED HANDLEBARS

 

     When I look back at things worth remembering, this was a highlight. More affluent times followed but I still can recall the excitement and hear the belly laughs of that Christmas.        

       Oh yes, Buel’s gift to me was an envelope with money which he said to save for our wedding.

 

Author’s note: Buel and Ellen Neidel Bremer did save enough money to get married in August 1933.

They had 14 years together before Buel died in 1947, at age 38.  They had made Long Beach their home for 25 years. The Depression forced Buel and Ellen (whose stage name was Eileen Neidell) to give up their entertainment careers.  If they lived today, I am sure they would have been contestants, if not winners, on Dancing With the Stars.  Instead Buel became an insurance salesman and Ellen a stay-at-home mom to their four children: Russell, Judy, Valarie & Steven.