Christmases come and go, quickly

A question for those of you that have been around for awhile like me: Do you ever let your memory wander through the past and then compare it to the present? I do it all of the time.

That’s what happened when I started thinking about Christmases of long ago.

When I was little, it seemed to take eons before Christmas arrived. The last week before the big day seemed to drag out f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Finally, Christmas would come, it was over, and then it was eons before it came around again.

Now, it seems like I just get done sending out Christmas cards for one Christmas and it’s time to do it again. If I didn’t know better, I would swear that Christmas comes around about every three months.

With each year I gain in age, it seems the time span between Christmases becomes shorter.

I recently did the math and determined that, since December 1929 when I landed on this planet, I have been around for 80 Christmases!

I have celebrated Jesus’ birth in Europe, in the Far East and in several states within the Lower 48. But because I grew up in Napa and chose to return here when I retired from the U.S. Army, most of my Christmases have been spent here in my home town of Napa.

More than a year ago, when I started my bi-weekly offerings to the Register, my intent was to relate how life in Napa was some six decades ago, give or take a few years. That was the reason we named my column Napa As It Was.

So, as I sit here today and turn my thoughts back to Christmases past — like way back to the 1940s — I remember our little town with fondness.

The Napa of then had perhaps 10,000 citizens. The city was small, with the downtown core being the center of the universe. Except for a few outlying businesses, everything was downtown.

For a teenager in Napa, Christmas was a fun time. The schools were closed for the Christmas vacation. The radio stations played unending Christmas music and people would join together and sing Christmas carols. Everybody was in a holiday spirit.

Downtown was decorated for the holidays. The stores were all decked out in Christmas colors and, best of all, the stores stayed open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., instead of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the usual hours. It was great fun being downtown at night because you never failed to run into people you knew. The streets were crowded at night the last few days before Christmas with people doing their last-minute shopping.

Shopping was fun, too, because you usually knew schoolmates who worked in the stores. The stores hired young people as clerks during the Christmas season so you could go from store to store saying hello to lots of friends — or to peek in on someone you might have a crush on.

Napa had a great selection of stores. Other than trying to make up your mind on what to get for the names on your gift list, shopping was pretty easy. You could park your car and walk to any store in town.

As those of you that were around then can attest, most stores were single-purpose: If you wanted to shop for jewelry, you went to a jewelry store; for clothing, a department store; for hardware, a hardware store. Well, you get the picture.

What stores were around in those days? Thanks to the Polk’s City Directory of 1947, here are some of the places of business with some hints of what you might buy there.

If you needed something for several members of the family, you could go to a department store like Carithers, Albert’s, Montgomery Ward and J.C. Penney. For toys and gadgets, you had F.W. Woolworth (the “10 cent store”).

If you were looking for something feminine, you had a choice of ladies ready-to-wear shops like Bamburg’s, Jay Vee, Jenny Mateel, Mode O’Day, Roberta’s and the Anita Shop.

To find something very special in jewelry, you could go to jewelry stores like Gensler-Lee, Meyer’s, Prouty’s, Rothschild’s and Paul T. Watson.

How about tools or fishing equipment for a guy? Arnitz Hardware, Dayton Hall Hardware, Napa Hardware, Sampson-Rossi Hardware and H. Schwarz Hardware were all available and well-stocked.

To me, the Christmas of today (like a lot of other things) has lost some of its original purpose, which is celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. But it’s still a time of good cheer and the annual communication with old friends through the exchange of Christmas cards.

Oh, that reminds me, I have to get started on my cards for Christmas 2009. It will be here before I know it.

Merry Christmas!

(Napa As It Was appears every other week, alternating in this space with Betty Rhodes’ Senior Corner.)

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