By Dale AndrewsPhyllis Kendall was born in the year 1909 and obviously she cannot remember the first Christmas she spent on earth.However,Cheap Air Max Tn, Mrs. Kendall, now 99, still remembers Christmases in those early years of the twentieth century and vividly recalls some of the experiences she had growing up in the village of Philadelphia on the East Bank of Essequibo in the then British Guiana.In those days there was no electricity, no minibuses and of course none of the boom boxes and lewd music that youths worship nowadays.But there were always the black cake, garlic pork, ginger beer and roast pork.And Santa Claus was more than just a myth.The seventh of eight children born to a schoolmaster and a teacher, Mrs. Kendall was always in a full house of children, who are the essence of Christmas.She said that her father had the task of buying gifts for each of his children – no easy task in those days.The toys all came from Britain as against the inferior mass production stuff that permeates local stores today.Today, Mrs. Kendall is the only surviving member of her family and while she is looking forward to visits from friends this Christmas, she is not too sure if she will see any of her close relatives who are mostly domiciled in several other countries.Excessive shopping during the month of December was always a feature even in Mrs. Kendall’s early years and being a country girl, she would relish the trips to the city with her mother and other siblings.“We were like fish out of water, although we did go to Georgetown on several other occasions during the year. But at Christmas time, for us children, it was like heaven for us,” said the former school teacher.Her father being a schoolmaster, his task was to organize the school party and Mrs. Kendall remembers one such occasion that has left an indelible mark on her life.She recalled that during that time, East Indians had begun to arrive in British Guiana and were not fully integrated in society.“Dad had put on a Christmas party and invited this Indian girl and she watched at me and said, ‘coolie water rice, pork and spice’ and I said ‘black man sara, young massala,Cheap NFL Jerseys, who you daddy, who you daddy?” she joked.She said that while others were apprehensive about mixing with the new immigrants, her father had always advised that there is a need to live among all the people of the then British Guiana.“Oh yes, we had to do the usual cleaning up. The boys would normally wipe the walls while my sisters and I helped my mother with the other chores,” Mrs. Kendall reminisced.And it was not difficult to get the children to do these chores, for with the promise of toys and other rewards they would have walked to Berbice if told to do so.“In the weeks leading up to Christmas, everyone would volunteer to do something knowing fully well that they stood a very good chance of being favoured on Christmas Eve,” Mrs. Kendall stated.In those days Santa Claus was very real and according to Mrs.? Kendall, as children they would clean everything in sight to prepare for him,Cheap Jerseys Store, even hanging stockings in anticipation for the much anticipated midnight visit.“The gifts were the usual dolls and doll houses for the girls, and trucks and cars for the boys,” Mrs. Kendall said.She recalled that in those days when people came to your house at Christmastime,Jose Calderon Jersey, the first thing that they set their eyes on were the window blinds.It was kind of a status thing – the more expensive your curtains, the more people looked up to you.Mrs. Kendall recalled that whenever someone enquired from her mother where she got her curtains,Cheap Jerseys USA, her mother would offer to get them for the person, since she did not want them to shop from the same place as she did.“So nice did my mother’s curtains look that persons would even bring their cloth for her to make their blinds for them,” she said.Those were the days when you had to wait for the boat to arrive from England with the various goods.But she recalled that during the two world wars, celebrating Christmas suffered as a result, since boats could not travel as frequent as they usually did.There was the usual carol singing on the trains, which was looked forward to by many who used that means of transport.Mrs. Kendall also recalled that there was usually one oven in every small village and villagers used to take turns to use it to bake their cakes and pastries.Of course, being in a home headed by a schoolmaster and his teacher wife, Mrs. Kendall never had to go to the village oven. In fact, everybody came to their house where the oven was located.