The sandstone has many memories for me, good and some not so good. For example, we had an enjoyable Christmas there and I received a bunch of fun toys, including this table hockey game. My sister got a doll, which was quite lame, but still, she was happy with it. You can see that we are cleaned and combed and dressed. Likely on our way to a Christmas celebration with the French side of our family.

The Christmas tradition held that our father would position himself by the tree and hand out presents, in an orderly fashion, even though I for one would have preferred to dive into the middle of the stack and shred wrapping paper in a wild frenzy. This of course was not permitted. We did not open presents on Christmas eve, to my recollection, though it seems unlikely this picture was taken on Christmas morning, the way my father and sister are dressed. That is an electric razor he is holding.

Despite this photo not being developed until April 1961, this picture would have been taken December 25^th, 1960. My sister and I would have been on Christmas break from Machray School.

I got a hair comb in my Christmas stocking that year and was thrilled to get such a grown-up gift. 

I was in deep training to resolve my bed wetting issue, despite the blood letting evil rooster. I saved up 50 cents of allowance that year and bought 10 packs of hockey cards with bubble gum, from the corner store across the street. I also saved up box tops from Sugar Pops cereal and sent away for a plastic stage coach with horses attached that you could wind up with an elastic and gallop across the living room floor. It took forever to come in the mail. My parents watched TV at night. I could see the black and white flickering from the TV tube under the crack of the bedroom door and hear the muffled TV voices that were just loud enough to keep you awake but not audible enough to allow you to listen in on the story line. We lived in the sandstone when my cousin David was hit by a car. It seemed to me he was in the hospital for quite a while, but he says his hospital stay was brief. He survived but was still a scabby mess when we next saw him at home. The relatives used the occasion to gather and drink beer.

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