Christmas Past - The WWII Generation at Christmas

 by Glenn N. Holliman

Christmas 2020, a Reflection on 70 Years Past

I have posted the below photographs in previous years, but as this Christmas season is a very different one for many of us, I feel moved to share for the younger folks reading this what a Christmas past was like for my generation.  Extended families will be separated due to the Covid-19 virus, an unexpected and deadly visitor to the Year 2020. 

So as my late father often did, I step back in time and through old photographs rekindle  warm feelings when families could gather and celebrate the rituals that sustain us as human beings.

Below is one of the last pictures of the complete family of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman of 2300 Avenue North in Irondale, Alabama in December 1950. To my knowledge, never again would so many relations gather for a photograph with the grandparents present.

World War II had been over for five years but that winter America was in a new conflict known as the Korean War. We were living under the shadow of the new atomic bomb and experiencing a Cold War with the Soviet Union, a former ally, now an adversary. Four the men in picture, Melton, Bishop, Ralph and Walter, were veterans of WWII.  Uncle Sam did not call any of them back to service in Korea.  However, one of those pictured below, moi, did do service in a later war in the late 1960s.  Jerry and Terry Holliman were in the U.S. Army prior to the Viet Nam War.

Back row left to right: Euhal and Edna Holliman, Vena Holliman Daly, Mary Daly Herrin, Robert Daly, Charles Ferrell, Loudelle Holliman Ferrell, Ralph and in front wife, Motie Holliman, Melton and Ida Holliman, Gerry and Bishop Holliman, and in between them Walter Cornelius.  Middle row: Charles H. Ferrell, Susan Cornelius Williams in her mother, Virginia Holliman Cornelius' lap, Ulyss and Pearl Holliman holding Becky Holliman Payne, Carolyn Ferrell holding Pam Holliman, Patti Holliman, and John Ferrell. Front row: Bob Daly, Jerry and Terry Holliman, Anne and Jean Holliman, Nancy Carol Cornelius Morton and Glenn N. Holliman.  Yet to be born were Kathy Holliman, Tommie Holliman Allen and Bill Holliman and Alice Holliman Murphy.

Gathered above are the seven children of Ulyss and Pearl all with their spouses and their own children.  In this picture, there are 15 first cousins, which by 1956 would grow to 19 cousins.  

Remarkably eighteen cousins are still living, but we sadly lost Jerry Holliman in 2003 to heart disease.  Jerry is kneeling on the floor next to his identical twin, Terry.  I could never tell them apart.  Now all of the cousins are age 64 and older, most of us in our 70s, and several in their 80s.  Three of us are dressed as cowboys, the fad of the day for youngsters, most of us trying to look like Hopalong Cassidy or Roy Rogers. Bob Daly on the front row, far right, seemed to have come armed with a toy rifle!  

With the passing of my father, H. Bishop Holliman in 2018, the seven siblings and their partners now are gone.  My grandparents, Pearl and Ulyss died in 1955 and 1965.

I believe the hand written identification of the seven children and grandparents is that of cousin Charles Ferrell. This generation dressed formally for important family gathers.  The men are in suits and ties and the ladies dressed elegantly .  Note the large Christmas tree on the left.  As a child I was amazed by the then very modern electric lights, some that bubbled some type of oil.  Electric Christmas tree lights only appeared in the 1910s.

These Christmas gatherings at the Holliman household, I remember as very festive occasions when we children would play together and feverishly open our presents.  There were so many that the packages under the tree spilled over into the living room.  

Three new generations have appeared since this family gathered in what had been the childhood home of the seven siblings.  Seventy years on, these aunts, uncles and cousins still live in my memories of yesteryear Christmas's.  I suspect I am not the only cousin who cherishes the time past. - GNH

PS - Cousin Dr. Bob Daly, who has been experiencing health problems, would enjoy hearing from his cousins.  He asked me to pass along his email address which is humbander1943@yahoo.com.  Bob is Alabama's premier biologist on the plant life and birds of the Southeast United States.  Each summer over 400 hummingbirds are attracted to his feeder!