Christmas on the Side of the Road, 1936

Christmas on the Side of the Road, by my mother, Alcie Neal McGown

When Alice and I were six years old, my father left us and remarried and had four more children (one later died). My father was forty-two and his new bride was 14 years old. After dad left, my brothers became our protectors. Mother worked hard to keep us all together.
One night in December about 1936, we were traveling in the lower Rio Grande Valley of south Texas. (We were always traveling somewhere.) We stopped on the side of the road and we all slept sitting up in the car, since it was too cold to sleep outside on the ground as we usually did. During the night I had to get out to use the “bathroom”; and when I tried to get back in the car the girls had all scooted together and filled in my space so that I could not get back in. So, I spent the rest of the night on the floor board on their feet. I was very uncomfortable.
The next morning we drove into the next town (I don’t remember which one), and got us a cabin in what was then known as a tourist court. They had covered carports in between each cabin to park your car in; but we hung a tarp over the front and that was where the boys slept.
The next day while my brothers went looking for work and my mom and older sisters were readying the cabin, my twin sister and I went exploring around the camp. We noticed that every child had at least one new toy. When we asked them where they got their new toys, they told us that Santa Claus had brought them. And then someone said, “Didn’t you know this is Christmas?” We were shocked. When we ran back and asked Mother about it she said, “I guess Santa couldn’t find us on the side of the road.”
When my six children were small and complained about not getting enough presents for Christmas, I would tell them this story about the Christmas when Santa couldn’t find us because we were sleeping on the side of the road.