Memories of
Mattoon
Christmas on
Pine Street
Shortly after dad
married mom our family (there were three of us kids when dad
married mom) moved from South 6th Street to Pine Street. Mom
and dad married in August 1947 so it would have been early ’48
when we moved to our new house.
Dad had worked several low paying jobs after returning from
fighting in the South Pacific but there was always food on our
table. That July our younger brother Denny was born and soon
after his birth dad got a job driving a Coca-Cola truck.
The Mattoon Coca-Cola Bottling Plant was owned by the Kull
family and would remain a family owned business for many
years. In fact, middle brother David Lee worked in the plant
for a while and I would do the same until getting my own route
in the mid to late 60’s.
I don’t remember much about out first Christmas on either 6th
or the second one on Pine Street but years later, when I was
an adult and visiting Mattoon, mom and dad told me about our
first Christmas on Pine Street.
Before I get to the story, I want to tell you how much I liked
our neighborhood in the 2600 block. Larry Atkinson, still a
friend after all these years lived on 26th street between Pine
and Western if I'm right about the block we lived in.
The McCoy's had a grocery store in our block and lived
upstairs; their daughter Judy was a classmate of mine and Joey
Orndorff and his family lived next door to us; Ricky Duncan
and his parents lived in the corner house on the other side of
us.
I'll have more stories about Pine Street as I have in the past
as long as the column continues. I would like to add that I
spoke to Joey a few years ago but was never able to track down
Ricky even though I had heard he lived very near where I live
now. Not long ago I heard that Ricky had passed away and I
certainly hope that is not true, so if any of you know or knew
Ricky and the sad news is incorrect, please contact me.
Any way, when mom and dad told me about that 1948 First
Christmas on Pine Street, the story started with "we would not
have had much of a Christmas that year if not for 'Old man
Kull':, as the employees at Coke affectionately called the
founder of the local bottling plant.
"Old man Kull" somehow heard of the "poorness" of our family
(we kids never knew we were poor) and gave dad a Christmas
bonus even though he had not been an employee very long. I am
not sure if he gave bonuses to all employees but I remember
when I was a little older, the Kull family held an annual
Christmas party on the second floor of the plant for the
employees and their families.
"Old man Kull had twin sons, Adolph and Rudolph and they each
had a daughter about my age. I had a crush on one of them but
I'm not saying which one and I'm getting away from my story;
anyone who reads my column knows I have a tendency to go off
on tangents but I haven't met a "storyteller" who didn't.
That first Christmas we each received a couple of "small"
presents and one "special" present. To this day, I don't
remember what I received that year but I remember Joey
Orndorff received a large toy semi-truck among his presents;
it had a red cab, white trailer and red letters P.I.E. on each
side of the trailer. I used the internet to make sure my
memory was right and learned the letters stood for Pacific
International Express.
Anyway, Ricky called me on the phone even though he was right
next door, Christmas afternoon and asked if I wanted to come
see and play with his toys. After awhile he asked if he could
come see what I had received and play with them.
This is the part I didn’t remember until mom and told me as I
mentioned at the beginning of the story. It didn’t take long
for Ricky to get bored with my smaller gifts and one “special”
present and he said something young kids will do without
knowing any better, “Is this all you got? You sure didn’t get
as much as I did.”
My parents said I retorted, “I have a sister and two brothers,
something you don’t have.” They also said it had made them
very proud of me but they said I even made them prouder after
Ricky had gone home.
I remember saying then, “I think I know what I did and I hope
I’m right as my memory flashed back to that Christmas. “I said
I felt bad for what I had said to Ricky and insisted that I go
apologize to him.”
What was funny about the situation was, I think, that Ricky
had told his parents what had happened and Ricky's dad said
Ricky should apologize to me for gloating because he got more
presents than I.
We met about half way between our houses—and though I don’t
remember exactly how we handled it, I’m sure we both tried to
outdo one another in the “apology department.”
My brother David Lee Wright passed away June 10, 2009
and this column is dedicated to him and any loved ones you
readers lost this past year. May this year bring joy to all of
us.
