November 29, 2011.
My parents took us to a Vaudeville Show in Wilkes-Barre, and one of the ‘acts’ of the show was with some trained dogs. There was a white poodle pushing a doll carriage. He was ‘walking’ on his hind legs. That was so remarkable to me that I can still see that little scene in my mind. There were some dogs going up and down ladders.
There were several scenes with dogs dressed in costumes. In one scene, a few poodles had on ballet tutus, and they stood on their hind legs, and twirled a little as ballerinas. This was at Christmas time, and before going into the theater, we would walk on the sidewalks looking at all the displays.
The department store always showed something in their show windows. Around the Christmas season, they were always so beautiful and complex. So wonderful for young children to see! I know also, that grown-ups really enjoy those dressed show windows too. Some stores had a Santa Claus in the front window, most of the time a large mechanical Santa, but now and then a real Santa Claus would sit in the window and wave his hand and do the “Ho-Ho-Ho” for the children outside who could hear him from the loudspeaker.
Each store tried to do better than the others. They had model trains in railroad layouts, complete with tunnels, bridges, farmland, forests, villages and cities with schools, churches, and gas stations, and more. The train would go through the tunnel, and come out a short distance away in the ‘forest’, then go over the bridge, over and over again. It was always enthralling to look at, when we children were taken to town. The excitement and joy was very high.
The Lackawanna Valley and Susquehanna Valley were home to many people whose forebears came from Europe. They especially loved decorating their homes with outdoor Christmas lighting, and a drive in the dark evenings was such a satisfying thing to do. We all really loved looking at Christmas lights. It seems that the most favorite color of lights was blue. Riding through the streets to see the blue lights was so beautiful.
When we would come back from visiting my Mom’s parents and family, who lived on a farm near Nicholson, we went through a well-to-do residential area where the Christmas lighting decorations were ‘bigger and better’ than those in our neighborhood. How exciting that was to see! Blue lights and many more, as we drove toward home. It was so pleasant and exciting, that we wouldn’t and couldn’t fall asleep in the back seat.
I'll see you at the Corner Post...
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