MEEKER | My mother-in-law, Pat Hendrickson lived in Meeker about a year before passing at the age of 94. She didn’t get to meet most of you, so I would like to share some of her humor with you now. Her Christmas letters were hilarious stories of life. You will need a little background for her letter to make sense. Her references to the “Wolf at the door” reflected the uncertain economics of farming. Ernie was her husband and all around great father-in-law. Pat and Ern have moved from the farm into the small town of Oswego, Kansas as Ern’s health was failing, unable to work the farm on Bitter Creek that he so loved. Here are a few paragraphs from their Christmas letter that year.
Well, here it is, nine days before Christmas and guess who is just now putting away the Halloween doo-dads. If you say Piddle Diddling Hendrickson you are right. If you don’t it will mean you have been sampling the Communion Wine and Piddle Diddling Hendrickson will not roll easily off your tongue.
It is hard to get motivated when it is such a luxury to sleep until eight o’clock — but not good to waste half a day before getting out of bed. Of course, getting out of bed is not a piece of cake. It takes a couple unearthly creaking noises, a slew of R-rated words and contortions not often seen outside of a circus, to get all the parts moving toward the kitchen where the blessed coffee pot awaits. But thank the good Lord when I get there. I am good to go.
Now Ern, who is the champion snoozer in this house, usually wakes up at six after a full night of sleep, rises with difficulty, sans the bad words, heads to the kitchen, makes his oatmeal, nukes a cinnamon roll the size of a basketball, eats, turns on the TV, sits down in his chair and sleeps until lunch time. He has no concept of motivation, and it does not bother him a bit.
I have a few pursuits outside the home — after clearing a path to the door — involving church, city business of which I thoroughly disapprove, a club, library board and Thursday Pie Day at the local cake and cookie shop that I and five others wouldn’t miss for the world. Ern doesn’t care to go, but he has me bring pie home for him. He does like to eat out and we rarely mill Sunday dinner with good friends after church at the Big Chief Restaurant — no Indians involved — in downtown Oswego. We are awaiting a Mexican restaurant to open so we will have a choice of diners and heartburns.
Weather — can’t forget that important topic — has been unusually cold and even a tad snowy for fall. No idea what will occur when winter finally arrives. Well, yes I do. We will be down at the bank taking out a loan to pay the gas and electric company. We put up our usual Charlie Brown Christmas tree, hung a wreath on the door, plugged in a few lighted doo-dads in the windows and called Christmas decorating done.
Sure miss the farm Christmases’ when we hung enough lights on house and pine tree to blind the wolf at the door. Also miss being years younger but that is another story. For now, Merry Christmas and hope your kids and friends are as much fun as ours.
By ED PECK
