Picture: George David Tolman and Emily Louisa Cheney and three daughters
My favorite Christmas as told by his son, Jerry Tolman
Contributed By: Bunnage Blaine · 11 January 2014 ·
I was born in 1934 during the Great Depession. I was born in Cardston, Alberta but lived in Hill Spring. Most people at that time could hardly find 2 nickels to rub together. We lived in a little two room house with Mom and Dad and 9 children. Mom and Dad’s room and the “living room” where the girls slept, (6 of them on a double bed, 3 at the bottom and 3 at the top) and the boys on a cot the same way as the girls. My oldest sister Fontella was married. Times were hard and Christmas wasn’t very big on the presents then. The key to having a good Christmas was to read about the Savior’s birth, sing Christmas songs and just enjoy each other’s spirit with some tiny gift that we had made ourselves. Of course in the year 1937, I was only 3 years old and I could not make much for a present. So I just sang my little heart out with the rest of my family. Though 1937 was a long time ago, I remember many things from my childhood particularly that Christmas. We had little and were expecting little, but our hearts wanted our Dad home. Without him home, our Christmas songs sounded a little flat. He was working at Beaver Mines, which was on the other side of Pincher Creek and we expected him home for Christmas Eve, the same as always. Hours later, he still was not home. After a long, worried wait, Mom had us kneel in prayer for Daddy to get home safely. Just a short time later the door opened and there was our Dad. His nose frost bitten and he had an ice cycle hanging from it, his eye brows and unshaven face were covered with frost, but he had a smile on his face. We all clamored around him. There were at least 9 of us and Mom hugging him and getting him warm. When he had a chance to talk, he told us he had caught a ride from Beaver Mines to Pincher Creek. He went out on the road at Pincher Creek, which is 28 miles from Hill Spring, to see if he could catch a ride to Hill Spring, but no one going to Hill Spring came along. He walked all the way from Pincher Creek to Hill Spring to be with his family for Christmas Eve. We had nothing but each other and our Dad home. Soon a knock came on the door, Dad answered the door, there was no one there, but, there was a large box filled with toys. Keith and I got a home- made wooden truck with wooden tires. Boy, I loved that truck! My sister Thelma got a rag doll and all the rest received gifts, but I can’t remember what they got. Thelma and I talked, what’s why I know what she got. We loved the toys, but we were a lot more happy that Heavenly Father had answered our prayers that night and got our Dad home safely for Christmas.
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