Twelve Days of Christmas, 2020, Part I: Spending the holiday season with the Halls

During my Twelve Days of Christmas blog series about my dad last year, I mentioned several times that my parents usually worked craft shows during the holiday season. More often than not, Mom and Dad were gone for weeks while my brother and I stayed with friends and families.

Who we stayed with depended on who was available and willing and who my parents trusted. One year, we stayed with our neighbors Virgil and Karen in Lebanon, Missouri. Another, we were with my Aunt Donna, late Uncle Wayne and our cousins Dale and Lee.

The earliest memory I have of living at someone else’s house during Christmastime was in 1981 or 1982. It’s been so long, I’m not even sure of the year. What I remember is my brother and I lived with the old man in Anderson, Missouri. Our parents were divorced (they reconciled a few years later and remarried in 1989) and Dad was working a show in Joplin or Columbia (again, the details are a little fuzzy nearly 40 years later).

The demands of a Christmas show are taxing, to say the least. In those days, Dad wasn’t making the leather goods that he later became famous for on the arts and craft circuit. The family business then was stained glass, and it was more or less a living-craft show-to-craft show situation. Sometimes he made money at a show, sometimes he didn’t sell anything.

“I had you guys, I was trying to run a business, and we didn’t have much,” Dad told me during an interview several months before he died in August 2019. “Trying to maintain a business, take care of you guys … just putting food on the table. You talk about pressure.”

The Christmas shows were always the bread and butter. The year before they divorced, Mom worked the mall in Joplin while Dad made the lamps and other items. It was hard work, but my parents made enough to not only give us a Christmas beyond what they really should have, but also cover several months of bills and get us through the winter season that usually didn’t have any shows.

“That first year at the mall there, we really did well,” Dad said. “But it was so hard. Your mom was working our booth, and I was working non-stop making stained glass. For about a month, I was working 20-hour days just to keep our stock up. It was a good problem to have, but it was not fun.”

The following year, the old man was in a pinch. He had to work a craft show and make enough product to get by. He also needed help taking care of us. Enter the Hall family in Anderson.

The Halls were your typical hard-working couple in southwest Missouri. At the time, Gene and Margaret ran a screen-printing store in downtown Anderson. I remember being in awe of their store and all the cool T-shirts they had on display.

For several weeks, Margaret and Gene took care of us. I don’t remember much about that time. I vaguely remember watching the Christmas parade in Anderson. It seemed big then, but driving through the tiny town years later, I realized it was quite small.

I also remember their son, Bryan, was so busy with high school that we rarely saw him. One memory I have is of their daughter, Angie, who was several years older than us. We cheered wildly for her during a basketball game her mother took us to that December. I’ve always remember Angie because she was the first girl I looked at and thought, “Wow, she’s pretty!”

Years later, I think about the Halls and realize how different things are these days. We really didn’t know them that well, but my father trusted them enough to ask them to take care of us for during his Christmas show. Times have certainly changed.

Nearly 40 years later, Anderson’s downtown is withering away. The dazzling T-shirt store the Halls owned is barely standing. Bryan and Angie have their own families now. Gene was an elected county official for years. Margaret, who I tracked down on Facebook last month, hasn’t changed much: She’s still the same kind, motherly lady I loved as a child.

“There were really good people, son,” Dad said. “They really helped me out. I hated leaving you guys, but I couldn’t have asked for a better family to take care of you.”

As for Christmas Day that year, I don’t remember it. But I will always remember the Halls and their kindness, which is better than any gift we received.

Note: A few days after I connected with Margaret for the first time in nearly 40 years on Facebook, Gene passed away due to cancer. Gene was a kind, wonderful man, and he will be greatly missed.