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The Armourdale Christmas Adoption program applications will end December 16th. Many of our families and senior citizens are in need for the holidays. Armourdale takes pride in “taking care of our own.” We try our hardest to help those in actual dire need. The program only applies to the community of Armourdale.

Armourdale has a wonderful past full of warm Christmas memories. We are not able to revive those days, but we try to give our low-income families and children some good memories to carry through their adult life.

The Armourdale of old was full of people teeming up and down the streets during the holidays. The street lights were decorated as well as Shawnee Park. All the dads had a job. Armourdale employed not only Armourdale families, but families all over Wyandotte County.

After all, we had 5 packing, houses 2 soap factories, and several railroad offices. Seventh and Kansas Avenue held a complete retail shopping district. The streetcar went up and down Kansas Avenue all day long. People jumped off and on, shopping at each stop.

As children our pleasures were simple. Christmas Eve held tons of excitement. Midnight Mass at St. Thomas Church was the place we saw everyone. Our Christmas dinner was the highlight of the season.

The smell of turkeys roasting in every oven floated over the homes and out into the streets like a mist of heavenly clouds. I remember my favorite Christmas Eve when my father came home from the Army.

My grandfather (Walter Scott and my Uncle (Richard Scott) had come to St. John’s orphanage and told us we did not have to go back. We had been there for three years, an eternity to a 7 and 8 year old. They told us there was a big Christmas surprise waiting at home. We went running in to see Grandma Scott and she said”look in the kitchen.”  There stood my dad in his army uniform!  We were so happy to see him, we could not speak. He said “What do you kids want for Christmas?”

Well I had been dying for a set of ball and jacks and my brother Bob wanted some marbles. Dad took us into the front room and pulled two small boxes from under the Christmas tree. They held  my jacks and Bob’s marbles. I was in heaven. Dad took Bob back to the back porch while I was playing jacks. They returned with a big blue bicycle. I jumped up and down with delight and quickly returned to my jacks.

My father had this puzzling look on his face and said “Don’t you want another present?” I said “I got my jacks.” I kept bouncing the ball and playing jacks as if there were no tomorrow. Finally Dad grabbed my hand and said “follow me.”  He took me to the back porch and there stood a big red bicycle with a carrier on the back.

I was overcome with shock, I cried, I laughed and said “is it really mine to keep?” I rode that bicycle until I was 16 years old. We kept our bicycles stored in Grandma’s shed. After the 1951 flood waters receded. I ran out in the back yard. The shed was gone and so was Bob’s bike. 

My red bicycle stood there mired deep in flood mud. It looked like it was standing there looking at me as if to say. “It’s about time, get me out of here.” Bob’s bike and parts of the shed ended up at the end of the alley.

Years later when I was 16 I was riding my bike down Osage with Donna White on the back when she fell off and landed in the street. The bicycle had cracked right in half.

That ended my bike riding days in 1954. And so this ends of my Christmas Story that I tell every year at the Armourdale Optimist Christmas program. Do you have a Christmas Story?

Come to the Optimist Christmas luncheon on December 22nd and tell us your favorite Christmas story.