December 26, 2005
breast your cards
12/26/05
When my grandmother was a child in western Colorado during the 1910s, Christmas was a big deal, even though nobody had two farthings to rub together. Still, every year, my great grandma Pearl and her husband John Evans used to find a way to get an orange for each of their five kids.
An orange during the winter in Red Mesa, Colorado in 1914 was about as precious as, say, stock in Google right now. And so, they woke up on Christmas knowing it would always be there. My mom carried the tradition with us, without even sharing the story until someone had the balls to ask why we were always getting a frickin' orange in our stocking every year.
Once I found out, it was clear. And now Lucy will always have the same.
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hope everyone out there had a fabulous holiday
Now orange u glad u asked?
i get an orange in my stocking every year too. just called mom and she gave basically the same answer - fresh fruit used to be a huge treat!
Well, there are religious myths about why the orange or tangerine is in there. Just do an internet search.
Before widespread truck shipping, I think fresh fruit from more than 50 miles away was a big treat. I do know it is a Worsley family thing going back to Red Mesa, but it's also in the Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House" books, so I think there may be a second wave of the Orange-In-The-Stocking thing among a lot of people stemming from that book.
The coolest thing this year vis-a-vis' the oranges was the high tech orange zester, which takes off just the zest, leaving a curiously naked orange. It was a little like the cartoons where Sylvester The Cat gets his pelt ripped away and is of a sudden naked.
I've always gotten an orange, and my both parents said they got oranges, too. My mom grew up in Florida, though, so I guess it was pretty ho hum....
Anybody else get a lump of coal?
We get an apple and an orange, for the same reason; both my sets of grandparents say they got them in rural Iowa as stocking treats because oranges were rare.
ditto for me - my folks and grandfolks are from Kansas...
Ian, hope you are well. (This is Jiff's friend from SIPA.) I remember my grandmother, a card sharp from the Midwest, used to tell me to "breast your cards" when I was a kid. I am using it in a report, and wanted to make sure I got the expression correct. I googled it to see, and your blog came up. Small world.
rwh
PS "card sharp" or "card shark"? My research says both are acceptible, yet there is uncertainty as to which is correct and/or the original.