One day near Christmas
When I was just a child
Mama called us together
And mama tried to smile
She said, "You know the cotton crop
Hasn't been too good this year
There's not a lot of spending money
And well at least we're all here
I hope you won't expect
A lot of Christmas presents
Just be thankful
That there is plenty to eat
That's quite a blessing
And will make things
A little more pleasant"
And us kids got to thinking
How really blessed we were
At least we were all healthy
And most of all
We had her
Roy cut down a pine oak tree
And we drug it home
Jack and me
Daddy killed a squirrel
And Louise made the bread
Reba decorated the tree with popcorn strings
Before we went to bed
Mama and daddy sacrificed
Because this Christmas was lean
But after all there was the babies
Tom and Joanne
And babies need a few things
I whittled a whistle
For my brother Jack
And though we fought now and then
When I gave Jack that whistle
He knew I thought the world of him
Mama made the girl's dresses
Out of flower sacks
And when she ironed them down
You couldn't tell
They hadn't come from town
A sharecropper family across the road
Didn't have it as good as us
They didn't even have a light
And it was way past dusk
And mama said
"Well, I bet they don't even have coal oil
Or beans to boil
A log, apples, oranges and such"
Me and Jack took a jar of coal oil
And some hickernuts we'd found
We walked to the sharecropper's porch
And set them down
A poor old ragged lady
Eased open the door
She picked up the coal oil
And hickernuts and said
"I sure do thank you"
And quickly closed the door
We started back home
Me and Jack
And about halfway
We stopped looked back
And in the sharecropper's window
At last was a light
So for one of the neighbors and for us
It was a good Christmas night
Christmas came
And Christmas went
Christmas that year
Was heaven sent
And daddy put on his gumboots
And waited for the thaw
Back home in Dyess, Arkansas