18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, December 11, 1913: Went to Watsontown this afternoon. Admired the Xmas fixings and other things, but I’m not going Xmas shopping until next week. Then I won’t have to keep them so long.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Watsontown is a nearby town that was a little larger than McEwensville.
Watsontown is a charming town, but the downtown area is very quiet today. It was a little busier when I was a child, but it wasn’t a major shopping destination. In some ways, it’s difficult to imagine a time when Watsontown had “Xmas fixings” worth admiring.
A Hundred Years Ago 
I’m sort of bummed that Watsontown doesn’t decorate for “Xmas” anymore. It looks charming — and unchanged!
I like the expression “Christmas fixings”. It’s a new one to me. And Helena seems to have my sort of approach to Christmas 🙂
I love that Helena puts off the gift shopping so she doesn’t havent to hold them so long! It’s hard to have the gifts and wonder how people will react to them!
I am curious too about ‘X-mas fixing’ and why he did not want to keep them long. Interesting!
ps of course I meant she…not he!
I wonder what Helena would think of the Xmas fixins that appear now before Thanksgiving! Talk about holding presents too long!
I wonder if they also had homemade gifts too.
Even 60 years ago small town in East Texas prided themselves on their municipal Christmas decorations – we children looked forward to the glittering arches with bright stars at the center which would appear over the downtown streets, and the many windows that featured animate displays. The tradition seems to have died sometime in the 60’s and 70’s – maybe with the first energy crisis.
I think that some of the towns may have also started decorating less as malls became a more popular shopping destination.
Looks like my little City of Radford … I love old buildings!
I like old buildings, too.
I miss the downtown areas of small towns. A tarted-up mall just isn’t the same!
I agree!
Our small town is nothing like it was when I was a child.
She either wants to savor the shopping experience or had siblings that would peek:)
I bet that she had siblings that would peek. I can picture her 8-year-old brother peaking (as well as her 21-year-old sister).
My thought to is that she might have trouble keeping them hidden. They may also play guessing games about what they might get and the cat could get out of the bag.
Your comments brings back memories of how my brother and I would try to guess gifts when we were children.
I wonder what it looked like 100 years ago.
So do I. For example, I’ve wondered if the town was large enough to have electric lights a hundred years ago.