Charlotte Christmas Past:
Memories from Susie Tremblay and Florence Horsford
by
Elizabeth Bassett

In 1913, the Poole family celebrated its first Christmas on Lime Kiln
Road. Florence (now Horsford), the four-year-old baby of the family,
had arrived in style.
"I rode from our old house on Mt. Philo Road tied in a rocking chair
that was lashed to the top of the load. I waved to everyone from my
perch, proud as could be."
Every December, Florence, sisters Joyce and Peg, brother Archie and
their parents, walked to the Big Woods to cut a balsam tree. "We also
cut boughs of hemlock and pine to decorate every picture frame in the
house. We picked running (princess) pine for wreaths and collected
wild cranberries to string for the tree. A wreath hung at every
window," Florence recalls.
On Christmas Eve, Santa's helpers trimmed the tree. "We flew
downstairs on Christmas morning to see the tree, wrapped in ropes of
popcorn and berries with candles clipped to the boughs."
"We found an orange in our stocking- who knows where my parents got
those oranges for they weren't in the stores." The few presents were
homemade. "My brother Archie always whittled something for us," she
says.
As the third sister, Florence wore hand-me-down clothes and shoes.
Even her special doll had been passed down. "My dolly was in sorry
shape with no hair. One year Mother asked Joyce for one of her
beautiful blond locks and wept as she cut it. On Christmas morning, my
dolly had a head of beautiful curls!" Over the years Dolly got many
Christmas dresses and crocheted bonnets.
Food came from the farm; cabbages and hams hung from the rafters
while beef and chicken were canned. The Pooles teamed with neighbors
to butcher heifers and pigs yielded hams, spareribs, and a huge barrel
of salted pork for baked beans.
"Every fall we'd search the woods for hickory nuts. My father would
return to get the bark for smoking hams." When meat ran low Archie
shot squirrels. "My mother cooked the hind legs and boned them. The
meat was added to potatoes, carrots, and turnips and topped with
biscuits to make pot pie."
For Christmas dinner Florence remembers not squirrel legs but roast
pork, with vegetables from the cellar and fruit cake. The women
started Christmas baking early, cracking butternuts and walnuts and
hoarding raisins. "Refining chicken fat for the cake was a lot of
work, heating and sieving it many times," Florence recalls. Christmas
night the family sang carols accompanied by Mother on the organ and
Father on the violin.
Florence was a bit surprised to hear that Susie McDurfee Tremblay was
contributing Christmas memories. "Why she's too young," Florence
exclaimed. "I was married when Susie was voted Miss Congeniality in
her Vergennes High School class."
Notwithstanding her youth, Susie, born in 1915, nurses memories of
her Greenbush Road childhood. While her three older brothers hunted,
fished, and trapped, Susie stuck close to home. Both Florence's and
Susie's fathers were employed by the Webbs at Shelburne Farms, Mr.
Poole as a carpenter and McDurfee an animal keeper. Susie's father
raised young foxes for the Webb's hunts and Susie was entrusted with
litters of their hunting dogs. "There was hardly an animal I didn't
keep at one time or another," says Susie, "including a pet skunk, tame
sheep, and a raccoon." The McDurfees also kept pigs, cows, ducks,
geese, turkeys, and chickens for consumption.
Christmas memories are more elusive for Susie. "I love the religious
message," she says. "We would put a small tree in a stand and decorate
it with berries and popcorn. Yet Christmas was really just another
day. My brothers would rather be hunting or trapping."
While the menu varied from year to year, there was one special treat
every Christmas. "My brothers walked up into the hills and filled
their buckets with snow and ice. We'd save the cream from our cow and
churn ice cream," Susie recalls. She and her mother baked a Christmas
cake and made popcorn balls. "I love popcorn balls!"
"I remember the Christmas I got my doll. I had only one doll and she
was very special. We would also get an orange every year in the toe of
our stocking."
One of Susie's favorite memories was of the fox hunt, racing across
all the properties in Charlotte. "Mrs. Webb always rode a white
stallion," Susie recalls. "And, she rode side saddle! The foxes, the
racing dogs, the galloping horses- now that was a special day!"