Hughes Christmases Past

     This year I decided to write a blog about Hughes Thanksgivings Past.  As Christmas is now several weeks away, naturally I wondered if and what I have covered on Flipside remembering Hughes Christmases Past.  I scanned through my Hughes Family blogs and found numerous ones remembering our 1950 and 1960 Christmas celebrations.  They are bits and pieces; however, not one covering all my memories.  

     The Christmas season was always a joyous time celebrated in our house.  The 1950's encompassed my growing years from age 3 to 13.  We lived in North Hills Estates, a neighborhood between Perrysville and West View, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania in the North Hills of Pittsburgh. 

     Our house was brand spankin' new when we moved in during the Fall of 1950.  It was a street full of new friends of all ages, an exciting play space that ran behind our street--the woods, church, shopping and elementary school within walking distance and neighbors who were old friends of my parents living two houses away with a daughter my age--my BFF.

     There are precious few early  Hughes Family Christmas photos.  My Dad, the photographer, was MIA for Christmas 1951and 1952 serving with the US Army in Korea, a doctor on the front lines in an aid station.  When he was discharged in the summer of 1953, a few years of holiday photos have survived.  

     Dad was meticulous hanging the tinsel and it does look beautiful.  A funny Hughes story that Mom told me regarding tinsel involved Dad's family back in the 1940's.  When my Hughes grandparents (Pop Pop and Grams) decorated the tree, the tinsel was thrown in small handfuls on the tree.  Maybe the reason Dad was so particular. 😄

1956
Me playing with the trains

     Dad also had a train under the tree and enjoyed setting up miniature trains throughout his life.  I was gifting him train cars for Christmas well into his 80's. 

Ken and Jeff with two presents I wrapped

     One of my entrepreneurial enterprises in elementary school was wrapping Christmas presents for the family.  Family members were able to choose the paper and ribbons for each present and I charged a very small fee.  

Horne's 1953

     The department store Christmas windows were always a special trip into Pittsburgh.  There were three major departments stores back then--Horne's, Kaufmann's and Gimbels.  Finishing the afternoon was lunch at Stouffers.  

     Every holiday season we enjoyed carolers who wandered around the neighborhood in the early evening serenading with Christmas carols and holiday songs.  I remember that as a member of the junior choir at Hiland, I also joined the carolers for several holiday seasons.

     I have no idea where Mom got our Christmas stockings.  Perhaps she made them!  I still have mine now and it's been sixty-nine years. 

1965 Bramble Lane

1965
House on Bramble Lane

     Mom loved to decorate for the holidays.  I do too.

     For as long as I lived at home, Mom would play Christmas carols during the holiday season.  We had Hi Fi Stereo Console as early as 1956 and it was moved to our new home on Bramble Lane in 1961.

     There were two specific Christmas albums that were played all day long.  I was able to find them both and continue to play them every holiday season.  The Wonderful Songs of Christmas by the Harry Simeone Chorale and Now Is The Caroling Season by Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians.

     Unfortunately there are no pictures of this annual Christmas event.  When we moved to Bramble Lane and I was in my teens, I decided to have a religious Christmas program on Christmas Day.  I read the birth of Jesus story from the Bible with the appropriate religious Christmas songs interspersed with the story.  Ken and Jeff were the singers.  The performance followed dinner.  Our maternal grandmother, Teek, was aways in attendance.  I think this was from 1961 to 1965.

The 1950's Christmas Routine

     Christmas Eve's when we lived on Washington Drive (1950-1960) followed a pattern.  We drove to a local restaurant for dinner out.  I remember we all had pancakes.  The next stop was Hiland Presbyterian Church for the Christmas Eve service.  Following the service, we would drive around the local neighborhoods to see the beautiful Christmas lights.  

     A neighbor, dressed as Santa, would wander up and down the streets on Christmas Eve passing out candy canes and sending us to bed so he could deliver the presents.

     

     My parents had a group of friends, who did not have children.  They would come after we were in bed to help with our presents and party.  It's a wonder the three of us ever did get to sleep.  😁

     Santa was always very generous with gifts.  As I look back at the pictures that have survived, I noticed that Mom did not wrap the gifts.  They were arranged in three areas for each of us.  When we moved to Bramble Lane, the gifts were wrapped.  

Dressed and waiting for our grandparents

     Christmas dinner was always at our house.  Our three grandparents lived near each other and Pop Pop and Grams would bring Teek to our house for the festivities.  

     Grams would always bring the dessert.  One year she had baked a cake.  Our dog, Spunky, jumped up, knocked the cake on the floor and ate it.  No dessert that year. 😂

Mom, Teek, Aunt Faith, Pop Pop, Me, Ken
Grams, Uncle Johnny, Great Grandma Hughes

     These are the first Hughes family Christmas dinner photographs taken by my Dad in 1953.  

Mom:  Martha Jean Stark Hughes--numerous blogs under Hughes

Teek:  Martha Marie Frederick Stark (maternal Grandmother)

Aunt Faith:  Faith Carol Hughes, married Edward Norman Roolf, Jr. in 1955

Pop Pop:  George Henry Hughes (paternal Grandfather)--numerous blogs under Hughes

Me:  Linda Lee Hughes (married Ted Steven Hiser in 1969)

Ken:  Kenneth George Hughes

Grams:  Sarah (Sara) Margaret VanGilder Hughes (paternal Grandmother)--numerous blogs under Hughes

Uncle Johnny:  John Aiden Hughes

Great Grandma Hughes:  Elizabeth Ferdinande Olesen Hughes (paternal Great Grandmother)

1953 Christmas table

My Christmas table  2004

     The dishes and sterling silver flatware used for the holiday meal were Teek's, given to my mother, her daughter.  In 1999 it was all passed along to me.  For years I used it for both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners; however, to streamline the clean-up, I began using my everyday table ware.  Lazy Linda.  The china and silver had to be hand washed. 

China pattern: La France, Theodore Haviland, Limoges, France

Sterling Silver pattern:  Cascade, Towle Sterling Silver

Mom, Teek, Aunt Faith, Pop Pop, Grams, Me, Ken

     Dad was always behind the camera--never pictured.  I have enlarged myself to highlight the appetizer for every Hughes Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner from the time they were held until Teek's death in 1971--the fruit cocktail.  

     Teek created the fruit cocktail with fresh pieces of grapefruit, oranges, pears, peaches and maraschino cherries.  I image she squeezed fruit from the grapefruit and oranges.  It was a lovely concoction but so very very sour.  Not a kid fan favorite; however, it had to be consumed before we were able to get to the main event--turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy.  

     One Christmas, as a joke, I recreated what I thought was in that fruit cocktail and served it at a Hiser Christmas dinner.  LOL

     Those are the only two years that Dad photographed a Hughes Christmas dinner in the over 3 decades that Mom and Dad were married.  Grams and Pop Pop relocated to St Petersburg, Florida when he retired from the American Bridge Company circa 1961-1963. Teek was at the table until 1970.  Ted and I married in 1969 and split our Christmas Day between the two families until 1977 when I was pregnant with Aric.  From that year until now, I have hosted both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2025, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Giving Thanks for the Old Time Hughes Thanksgiving

     I crossed age 78 this year and am the oldest in my greater US Hughes Family.  My brother Ken's death this year also places me in the position of being the only one in the US Hughes Family who lived through our grandparents (Grams and Pop Pop) time in the 1950's at an age to have vivid memories.  A collection of those memories are about Thanksgiving and, although many I have verbally told, it is high time to "put pen to paper" and get them out on Flipside.

     My memories go back to elementary school days.  Paternal grand parents, George Henry Hughes (Pop Pop) and Sarah (Sara) Margaret VanGilder Hughes (Grams) lived in a duplex in the Borough of Bellevue, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.  168 Lincoln Avenue held  Hughes Family Thanksgiving meals from 1950 to 1956.  

     There are precious few photographs from the gatherings and the three years that are covered are 1953, 1955 and 1956. 

     From about 1957 until Pop Pop retired in 1962, The Thanksgiving celebration was held at their second apartment, also in the Borough of Bellevue.  During these years I have "iron glad" memories as I was in late elementary school, then junior high and finally sophomore year in high school.  

Pop Pop, Grams, Great Grandma Hughes, 
my maternal grandmother, Aunt Faith, Cousin Kae
and me peeking from the side of the photo

      I just located this photograph.  Taken by Dad, Thanksgiving 1953 at the Lincoln Avenue apartment.  Dad was back from Korea that summer.  Mom and Ken are not pictured.  

    

Front Row:  Me and Ken
Second Row:  Dad, Pop Pop, Aunt Barb, Mom
Back Row:  Grams, Aunt Faith, Uncle Ed, Great Grandma Hughes, Jeff, Uncle John

     

     This was the one entire family Thanksgiving celebration.  Thank you Dad for capturing us in this freeze fame of our life. 💖 My youngest brother, Jeff, was born in May and Aunt Faith and Uncle Ed were married in May.  Aunt Barb and Uncle John were expecting their first child, Fran.  

Actually 1956

Actually 1956

1956

     There were a few more 1956 Thanksgiving photographs.  Uncle John and Aunt Barb were not present; however, my maternal grandmother is in the pictures.  I am sure she was also at the 1955 Thanksgiving, just not in the one photograph.  I reevaluated these sets of photos and realized I mistakenly labeled them all 1955, not noticing that folks were wearing different clothes.  Rooky mistake. 😁 

Memories

     Lincoln Avenue apartment had a HUGE kitchen.  The women would be in the kitchen having coffee and chatting while Grams was working on the meal.  The men and Great Grandma Hughes were in the living room having drinks and laughing.  After the table was cleared, the women would be back in the kitchen doing the dishes allowing Grams to sit.

     As a kid I found it funny that Wild Turkey was one of the bottles that was poured in the living room.....on Thanksgiving.

     A joke Uncle John played on his wife, Barb, was sneaking into the kitchen and shooting her in the leg with a spray bottle of anesthetizing liquid.  Maybe some new medical product Dad brought for either Grams or Pop Pop's use.

     I can remember the plates that were always used.  White plates with green ivy leaves around the edge.  Some were chipped.  Coffee or tea in cups and saucers were on the table and served with the meal.  No wine.

     The North Bryant apartment was smaller--a two bedroom.  Everyone gathered in the living room or sat at the table before the meal was served.

     The kitchen was small.  Grams was in there readying the feast.  Pop Pop was the potato masher.  The women relieved Grams of kitchen duty after the dinner, clearing the table and washing the dishes.

     Pop Pop always called the sweet potatoes....yams and as a joke the green beans....bems.  

     Grams' food was always so wonderful.  Nothing fancy.  Just delicious.  

     Her baked items...wowee!  There were always two pies.  Pumpkin and mincemeat.  Although Grams was a teetotaler, she still put a little somethin-somethin in the mincemeat.  One year Pop Pop added another healthy pour.  Best pie ever.  LOL

      I have covered this in other blogs about Grams; however, I want to add it again here.  Grams learned her cooking and baking skills from her mother, Jessie Pool VanGilder.  Jessie ran boarding houses after her husbands death and Grams and her sisters grew up assisting their mother with household and kitchen chores.  When her girls were grown, Jessie was a stewardess (the cook) on river boats.

     Jessie was skilled at baking, breads and sweets.  My Dad told me of coming home from school and knew when his Grandmother VanGilder was in town from the aroma of the baking bread wafting toward him as he entered the house.  I do not have a memory of Grams baking bread.

     My Mom told me when remembering Grams....whenever Grams wanted something sweet, she would find a recipe in a magazine and bake it to have with her tea.  

The usual Thanksgiving Meal

• Turkey
• Stuffing
• Mashed potatoes
• Gravy with giblets (I don't have them in my gravy...lol)
• Green Beans (bems)
• Candied Yams
• Rolls and Butter
• Homemade Cranberry Sauce
• Coffee, tea and milk for the grandchildren
• Pumpkin Pie
• Mincemeat Pie

 

Grams and Pop Pop dressed for
Faith and Ed's wedding

     Nothing to do with Thanksgiving; however, a favorite photo of mine from the 1950's....clear and in color.  They both look terrific!!!  Grams was a seamstress.  The plan was for her to make Aunt Faith's dress and probably her own.  Unfortunately she broke her arm and was unable to do any of the sewing.  She is wearing long white gloves to cover the cast on her arm.  

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2025, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Institutions--Rainbow Girls

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to give a try for the second year. 

     The prompt for week # 18 is Institutions.

     I checked Webster's and found that an institution is defined as a society or organization founded for a religious, educational, social or similar purpose.  I have been a member of several institutions of my years and decided to blog about my high school years in Rainbow Girls.

     My family moved to a new house in 1961 ending over a decade in my childhood home.  And, that meant, introvert Linda, leaving my lifelong school and neighborhood friends and beginning high school in new surroundings.  Talk about anxious.

     Slowly through church and school clubs I began to fit in.  The major turning point was when my high school BFF moved into the neighborhood.  She had been in the school system since Kindergarten and my circle of friends enlarged greatly.  

     I had never heard of Rainbow Girls; however, I found that several of my new closer friends were members.  My Dad had been a Mason for years so there was no parent blocking my request to join.  

     Their mission statement:  "The International Order of the Rainbow Girls prepares girls for responsible and purposeful adulthood through character and leadership development, encouraging unselfish service and higher ideals in life, and promoting teamwork and effective interpersonal communications."  

     Mom and I drove to the North Side area of Pittsburgh to shop for the required long white dress.  Carlisle's was the place to go in Pittsburgh.  In fact, my wedding dress was purchased there seven years later in 1969.

     Looking back at the various pieces of printed memorabilia Mom saved of my Rainbow days, I was surprised at just how many of my friends were members.

     I attended meetings and activities until I graduated from high school in 1965.  I was active; however, did not add many bars to my pin for three years of service--underachiever.  😇

     The small yellow square pin was earned when I held the office as yellow representing nature in the bow.  There was a short memorized speech that I had to present at an installation meeting.   I do remember my Mom was extremely disappointed that she was not allowed to attend the meeting to hear me "perform" as she was not a member of a Masonic organization.  Readers may remember my Mom was quite the actress in local productions.   My Dad did attend.

     My Rainbow Girls activity ended when I left home for college; however, I did receive a Majority Certificate in 1968.  It is a card that I was retired in good standing and could be used if I ever desired to attend a meeting of the Order of Eastern Star.

     I did not continue on with Eastern Star.  I enjoyed my years as a Rainbow Girl; however, for me it was an extension of social activities with my high school friend group.

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2025, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Letters & Diaries--What I learned from Grams' Letters

     

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to give a try for the second year. 

     The prompt for week # 7 is Letters & Diaries.

     Unfortunately, I do not have any diaries to share on this blog; however, I do have a couple of the letters my paternal grandmother, Sarah Margaret VanGilder Hughes, sent to me and my parents.  My Mom saved bits and bobs for all three of her kids and they were stored in boxes from the various department stores in Pittsburgh.  They were called "baby boxes" although Mom saved stuff through our teen years and into adult hood.

     My grandmother, nicknamed Grams, typed her letters.  Before she married, she was employed in Pittsburgh as a typist/stenographer.  She was still typing into her late 70's.

     Like all genealogists, it often takes several "looks" or "reads" of the family archival records.  These few letters fall into that category.  

     I have blogged about a letter Grams wrote to me when I was born in 1947.  I have decided to highlight a few parts here, although the entire letter is a Treasure Chest Thursday submission--A Letter From Grams.

      Grams and Pop Pop were living in Monaca, Beaver County, Pennsylvania when this letter was written.  They were living with their daughter, Faith and Pop Pop's mother, Elizabeth Ferdinande Olesen Hughes.  When Faith graduated from high school, they all moved back to Bellevue, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.     

    

     This portion deals with laundry day and how women used to hang their clothes outside to dry on warm days.  She had a little hiccup one day hanging her clothes on the neighbors side.  The Grams I knew rarely/never got upset about these petty disagreements and apparently she didn't at this instance either.  Very even tempered.

     Grams did love to play cards.  When I was in elementary school and spending time at Grams and Pop Pop's for a long weekend, one activity was playing cards.  I's hear, "Lynn, go get the cards out of the credenza."  She taught me canasta.  I taught her Go Fish.  One of my proudest moments was during a week long stay with them in Florida over my college spring break.  By then I played bridge and sitting down with them and a fourth one night for an evening is a lasting memory.  

Before she became Grams 😁

     My brother, Ken, was born at Camp Carson, Colorado in 1952. Mom and I traveled west from Pittsburgh by train several months before the birth. These are excerpts from a long typed letter from Grams after the birth.

     

     I guess Ken was a large baby. 😇  I learned that my Dad and Uncle John were large babies when born.  

     Grams mentions twins without going into any details.  In 1977, she mentions twins as being born in her family.  The red hair comment comes from Grams' sister Anna Estelle who was a red head.  

     I found this comment humorous.  I was only five years old in 1952 but I do not remember jeans on women.  Grams never wore them.  And yet....

Look what I found.  A picture of Mom and me sitting on the steps of our place at Camp Carson and wearing........JEANS. 😂 

     Grams was not the seamstress that my maternal grandmother was; however, she did sew. Again, when I was in junior high and taking home economics, I made school clothes with Grams when I stayed overnight.  We would walk up to town and purchase a pattern and fabric.  

     Grams had a somewhat unorthodox method of not pinning the pattern onto the fabric.  She always said, "Lynn, never do it this way in class." She also showed me how to customize my outfit by substituting different pattern pieces i.e. different sleeves on a dress.   

     In December 1977, I had written to Grams and sent her a creche for Christmas.  I told her that if my baby was a girl, I intended to name her Sarah after her.  Her response had a few interesting details

     "Happy thought for the day:  **Every other generation in my family, there would be twins.  Maybe the Hiser's do not run into such redundancy."  

     

     Oddly, the finding of twins was in my paternal grandfather's Hughes line.  

     "I think Sarah is a horrible name.  That's why I've always been called Sally, (at my request).  I really was christened Sarah, and there has always been at lest one Sarah in our family since the late 1600.  HONEST!!"  

     Grams was referred to as Sal.  She changed her first name to Sara on documents, not legally; however, Sara was how it was written.  As to the first name Sarah going back into the late 1600's.  It does go back jumping from side to side on Grams family tree missing a generation of two here and there.

     During the years I was in college, Grams and I corresponded by letter. I wish I had had the foresight to have saved some of them.  

Grams and me in Florida
1964

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2025, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser