Christmas 1969 - Joe's Tree

This is the first year I remember having my own tree. I remember waking up Christmas morning and seeing this tree and then scampering downstairs with excitement ready to start the day. Our Christmas trees were obtained from Grandpa Les and Grandma Jean's land located just outside Two Harbors. We'd go there to visit the grandparents for Thanksgiving and bring back a large tree for the living room and then some smaller ones for our bedrooms. The Noah's Ark quilt on my bed was made by Mom.

Gifts - Colorful Pots and Pans

My earliest Christmases (late 1960's/early 1970's) were spent at my grandparent's houses in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Grandma Alice and Grandpa Louie owned a bakery there which they operated from the mid-1950's to 1981. Grandpa Les worked for the railroad but retired around this time and Grandma Jean stayed at home. Jean and Les also owned a cabin on 40 acres of land about eleven miles just outside of town. I loved going to two Harbors and visiting all of them at their houses but also loved spending time at the bakery and cabin.

It was about 1971 and Mom, Dad, Sam and I were up in Two Harbors for Thanksgiving. I remember sitting on a big unopened bucket of lard in the storage room by the back entrance of the bakery. My brother Sam and I were paging through Grandma Alice's Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog and looking at Christmas toys. What I decided I wanted most was something the catalog called Colorful Pots and Pans. They were big colorful plastic toys modeled after kitchen items but with faces on them. There was a skillet, coffee pot, saucepan, etc. I never got them and I don't remember feeling too disappointed. Once we got back to Minneapolis I'm sure I came up with something I wanted even more.

This past weekend my friend Noel and I were putzing around a Minneapolis antique store and I stumbled upon what is pictured here. If this isn't the actual product I saw in that Montgomery Ward catalog then it's eerily close!