George Ella Lyon - A Kentucky Christmas

A Kentucky Christmas

EDITED BY GEORGE ELLA LYON

Copyright 2003 by The University Press of Kentucky Paperback edition 2012

Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University.

All rights reserved.

Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

A Kentucky Christmas / edited by George Ella Lyon.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-8131-2279-1 (Hardcover : alk. paper)

1. American literatureKentucky. 2. KentuckySocial life and customs. 3. ChristmasLiterary collections. 4. KentuckyLiterary collections. 5. ChristmasKentucky. I. Lyon, George Ella, 1949.

PS558.K4K36 2003

810.80334dc21

2003012681

ISBN 978-0-8131-4115-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Member of the Association of American University Presses

Because this page cannot legibly accommodate all the copyright notices, the notices appear at the end of the book as an extension of the copyright page.

George Ella Lyon

Wade Hall

Harriette Simpson Arnow

Thomas D. Clark

FROM P ILLS , P ETTICOATS, AND P LOWS: T HE S OUTHERN C OUNTRY S TORE

John Fox Jr.

Loyal Jones

Anne Shelby

Kathy L. May

James Still

FROM T HE W OLFPEN N OTEBOOKS : A R ECORD OF A PPALACHIAN L IFE

Linda Scott DeRosier

Graham Thomas Shelby

Chris Holbrook

Kathleen Hill Sterling

James Still

FROM F ROM THE M OUNTAIN , F ROM THE V ALLEY

Billy C. Clark

Chris Offutt

Leon V. Driskell

Sallie Bingham

Jane Gentry

Bobbie Ann Mason

FROM S HILOH AND O THER S TORIES

Marie Bradby

Clifford Wieck

Rebecca Bailey

Jane Gentry

Janice Holt Giles

FROM W ELLSPRING

Frederick Smock

FROM G UEST H OUSE

Mary Ann Taylor-Hall

Kim Edwards

Lynn Pruett

Jeff Worley

Peggy Steele

Harry Caudill

FROM THE M OUNTAIN, THE M INER, AND THE L ORD AND O THER T ALES FROM A C OUNTRY L AW O FFICE

Joy Bale Boone

FROM S AVORY M EMORIES

Dianne Aprile

FROM T HE T HINGS W E D ONT F ORGET

Ronni Lundy

FROM S HUCK B EANS , S TACK C AKES, AND H ONEST F RIED C HICKEN: T HE H EART AND S OUL OF S OUTHERN C OUNTRY K ITCHENS

Jan Walters-Cook

Wendell Berry

FROM A T IMBERED C HOIR

Marcia L. Hurlow

Belinda Mason

Jean Ritchie

FROM J EAN R ITCHIES S WAPPING S ONG B OOK

John Jacob Niles

Maurice Manning

George Ella Lyon

Marie Bradby

Thomas Merton

FROM T HE C OLLECTED P OEMS OF T HOMAS M ERTON

Frank Olson

Harlan Hubbard

FROM S HANTYBOAT J OURNAL

George Eklund

Maureen Morehead

FROM T HE D ARK W OODS I C ROSS

Jim Wayne Miller

Jonathan Greene

FROM A L ITTLE I NK IN THE P APER S EA

Joe Survant

FROM T HE P RESENCE OF S NOW IN THE T ROPICS

James Baker Hall

FROM T HE M OTHER ON THE O THER S IDE OF THE W ORLD

Pam Shingler

Crystal Wilkinson

Richard Taylor

Jane Olmstead

Loretta Lynn

FROM L ORETTA L YNN: C OAL M INERS D AUGHTER

James Still

FROM P ATTERN OF A M AN & O THER S TORIES

Jesse Stuart

Dorothy Sutton

Marianne Worthington

Wendell Berry

FROM A T IMBERED C HOIR

Pauletta Hansel

FROM D IVINING

Silas House

Carolyn Jo Lacy

Elizabeth Madox Roberts

FROM U NDER THE T REE

David Dick

FROM T HE V IEW FROM P LUM L ICK

Sarah Gorham

Martha Gallion Gehringer

Frank X Walker

Leatha Kendrick

Albert Stewart

FROM T HE H OLY S EASON : W ALKING IN THE W ILD

Christmas Day

Dear Reader,

Because my mothers siblings lived far away, part of her Christmas preparation was packing big boxes with gifts for them and their families and getting these in the mail in a timely manner. Part of my preparation was waiting for the corresponding boxes to arrive. What could be better than opening a present except opening a big box of presents, hoping there would be more than one for you?

That is how I imagine you now, holding this book, this box of gifts from Kentucky writers. Dig deeper. You will find poems, songs, essays, memoirs, stories, even recipes to enrich your celebration and reflection.

Some of these presents, such as Wade Halls Louisvilles First Christmas, will take you far into the past while others, like Marie Bradbys Shooting Star, are as contemporary as the new millennium.

Not everyone who shows up on Christmas morning wants roller blades or a Palm Pilot, shimmering earrings or musical socks. Likewise, different readers will be drawn to different offerings. But I trust that in this box of word-gifts, you will find treasure to savor now and for Christmases to come.

Wishing you peace and joy,

George Ella Lyon

Editors Note: As contemporary readers, we may be uneasy with language and stories which reveal American history in conflict with American ideals. Yet if we censor such writing, we camouflage that conflict, deny suffering, and hinder change. Slavery and racism, its legacy, are reflected (and reflected upon) in these pages.

WADE HALL

For two hundred years and more, Christmas in Louisville has been a glad and joyous time, a season when old and young alike have celebrated the birth of the Christ Child. These celebrations have been colorful and varied because the people who have lived in Louisville have come from many countrieseach with its own special ways of marking the seasonEnglish, Irish, Germans, Scots, Greeks, Lebanese, Italians, French, Africans, and many others.

From all these sources, we get the traditions that we now take into the twenty-first century, from the lighted Christmas tree, sparkling with icicles and brightly colored balls, to the Christmas dinner, with its groaning board of roasted turkey and chicken and stuffing, oyster dressing, baked country ham, barbecue, cranberry salad, sweet potato pies, apple punch, and mouthwatering fruit cakes.