Rural Heritage December 2025/January 2026

For me, he had made a scale model of a German style hay wagon. Two plastic Breyer horses made a matched team of sorrels, in matching harness, and were hooked to the wagon. The bed of the wagon was filled with bars of Swiss Chocolate in purple wrappers bearing pictures of Brown Swiss cattle wearing large bells and standing in mountain pastures. The labels were unintelligible to us, but chocolate is universal, and it was the most amazing chocolate we had ever tasted. In addition to the wagon and team, Opa had made a small barn with one side open to give access to a series of tie stalls. In each of the stalls, cast iron replicas of various breeds of horses stood as if they were awaiting someone to throw down the hay. I had never seen anything like it. That was the year we also learned to sing “O Tannenbaum” and “Stille Nacht.” It was also the year of the great blizzard, and it certainly looked and felt like Christmas with the snow drifting over the house and blanketing the yard. These are only a few of the Christmases that hang on in my memory. They are moments in time that I will never see again but were special. I had no idea how special at the time but only came to know by looking back.

December 2025/January 2026

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