I’ve been out of pocket due to health issues but will be posting soon in April. Have a wonderful Easter and look for me!

“Christmas Trees ”

By

Gerry Niskern

When I was a kid the minute I opened my eyes on Christmas morning, somewhere around dawn, and sniffed pungent, pine in the air, I knew it was there. My sister and I raced bare-footed down freezing stairs. Santa had come with presents and….a tree. It appeared magically in our living room each Christmas morning in glorious splendor, complete with large, colored lights, shiny ornaments and tons of icicles.
All types of trees at Christmases have come and gone. I remember when the enterprising tree salesmen started flocking trees, for a little extra charge. Everyone had to have one of those beautiful “snow” covered beauties. I have a friend who grew up in the Philippines who remembers trying to create a similar type tree. She says that when she was a little girl and wanted a Christmas tree her brothers went out and found a large tree branch, striped it, painted it white and glued little globs of cotton all over the branches. Then she decorated her “snowy tree”.
Once there were trees that “snowed”! The snowflakes blew out the top of the tree and settled gently down on the branches. The rest fell into a large cone at the bottom and were shot up inside the trunk to “snow” again. That fad didn’t last too long.
Then came the aluminum trees? They were one of the first put-together trees. The branches were inserted into the trunk, putting slot A into A, B into B, etc. You couldn’t hang lights on that tree; it came with a revolving multi-colored spotlight. I know a couple who were stationed in Saudi Arabia a years ago. As Christmas neared her mother shipped them an aluminum tree. Over the holidays they invited an Arabian family to share their traditional celebration. The only problem was all the little Arabian boys kept taking the aluminum branches out of the tree to play sword fighting!
Another Marine couple told me of being stationed on Okinawa and going scuba diving quite often. Once they spotted a beautiful chunk of coral shaped exactly like a Christmas tree. They managed to get it up and take it home. They soaked and cleaned it in the bathtub for a week, built a base for it and decorated it for their Christmas celebration. Wherever they were transferred, over the years, the coral tree remained part of their Christmas.
There used to be a huge yuletide tree in downtown Phoenix every Christmas. The city workers placed the magnificent fir atop a large box like platform in the middle of the intersection of Washington Street and Central Avenue. The traffic that traveled Washington passed by on either side.
Our best Christmas tree of all was the one we had after we became parents. One evening we set out with a lean pocket book but determination to buy our
three month old baby daughter her first tree. The Dairy Queen owner on West Van Buren always filled his empty parking lot with fresh evergreens. All the young couples in our crowd were on a tight budget, and our friends warned us, “Be
firm; never pay the price on the ticket.”
Of course, we fell in love with a beautiful tree that carried a hefty price tag. We circled and checked the lot again. Then we agonized and refigured our budget. Imagine our surprise and delight when we approached the vendor with our chosen tree and my young husband asked in the most firm and forceful voice he could muster, “Is that price the best you can do?”
“If it’s for that tiny baby girl, there’s no charge.” the vendor replied. And Merry Christmas to both of you.”

“Try to go COLD TURKEY for Thanksgiving?”

By

Gerry Niskern

Millions of kids will miss out on the fun over Thanksgiving weekend. Grouchy or misguided grownup spoilsports will put a damper on the day. When asked to “Please pass the potatoes”, they will send the dish along with a generous helping of politics.

Here’s a suggestion. Tell your guests “We’re going “cold turkey” on politics today.” Remind them that the election is over, and today is the day to count their blessings. Appoint someone to be your political police. Give them authority to immediately banish from the table political junkies who mention the recent election.

Ask your guests to name something for which they are thankful. Tell everyone that we have the freedom to celebrate our traditions or change them, as we wish. Advise them to nurture and cherish that freedom. Mention that the pilgrims celebrated their freedom in their new country with the Indians who helped them survive their first winter. Remind the cooks that at the Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving, Governor Bradford invited Chief Massasoit to share the settler’s first Thanksgiving feast. The chief brought ninety warriors with him and they stayed and celebrated for three days! Makes cooking for ten or fifteen seem easy, doesn’t it?

Actually, the first official Thanksgiving in the United States was proclaimed by Abraham Lincoln on October 3, l863, as the Civil War raged in this country. The thought of the Pilgrims and Indians once sitting together in harmony was comforting to this nation during that time of war.

Our ancestors started the tradition of sharing food and games with family and friends on the first Thanksgiving and I think you will agree, it’s up to all of us to keep and cherish those family customs. I promise you the investment of precious time and borrowed energy will set in motion a chain reaction of harmony for years to come. It’s a celebration of life with a group of people more precious than life itself.

When our kids and grandkids look back on thanksgiving, 2025, I hope they remember everything good about the day. They will remember the heavenly smell of the bird roasting in the oven, the taste of sweet potatoes and who really won the game, the guys or the girl’s team.

So, what do you say? Can you go “cold turkey” on Thanksgiving?

“THANKSGIVING ROULETTE”
By

Gerry Niskern

Do you have your genealogy research all done in time for your family’s Thanksgiving gathering? Due to Twenty-three-and-Me, Ancestor, and a few more websites, everyone now has a chance to learn about their immigrant ancestors.
Of course, some went into the search with the expectation of find a distant Prussian General, or at least an English Duke in the family tree! Most find out they are descendants of hard working immigrants who poured into America in the l800’s and early l900s. Those early relatives learned about Thanksgiving Day gradually, as well as about our country’s the laws, taxes and social mores.
My own grandfather, from Austria, was recruited to come work in the coal mines in West Virginia. My mother often told of when she started to first grade, and her dad, my grandpa had her sit with him at the kitchen table and help him learn to read the newspaper. He was very anxious to learn about our democracy and how this government worked.
Grandpa had served the required seven years in the army of Emperor Franz Joseph before he was allowed to come to the United States. My mother often told of how, as he learned to read English, he marveled at our freedoms allowed in our constitution. He reminded his children to be thankful they were growing up in a country where there was no King or Dictator.
When the kids learned about Thanksgiving in school, they told my Grandmother she had to roast a turkey, and prepare a big feast so they could have the special day of Thanksgiving like other American families.
And of course, Thanksgiving was celebrated, but my grandmother refused to buy a turkey when she had lots of chickens, and besides, she always declared, “You don’t just give thanks on one day, You are supposed to give thanks every day!”

Two American Families
By
Gerry Niskern
“That’s the last bag”, my young friend yelled, as she flung a bag of sweet oranges on top of the huge pile on my patio table. She has been picking my lone tree every January since she was nine years old. She is now fourteen but still needs her mom and dad to help with the top most branches. They aways come but won’t accept any pay. After all, this is her project.
This family is one of two Mexican American families that I count as friends. They are part of our diverse community. Their other daughter graduated from college last year after attending on a full scholastic scholarship. The young orange picker attends an Honors Academy. She also helped me learn to navigate my new iPad last year! We exchange Christmas gifts and this caring family has helped me many, many times since my husband died.
The other Mexican family I’ve known even longer.We met the mother when she was a teenage hostess at a local restaurant. She was brought to the United States when she was four years old. She has raised two sons with her husband, who is a construction worker. Their boys both graduated college. They are now grandparents and she and I go to lunch often. We exchange stories about her kids and my grandkids.
We all know this country was built on the labor of immigrants, many millions of them undocumented. When my grandparents came here in the 1880’s, immigrants were asked to sign a “letter of intent” :meaning that they intended to become U. S. citizens someday. Many followed thru and many didn’t. How many people can say they have actually seen their grandparents citizenship papers?
Many undocumented laborers have lived and worked here in this country for generations. They have bought homes, raised families, were good citizens paying taxes on everything, including payroll tax. My friends know their rights, but those seem not to matter anymore, with ICE raids getting worse with masked men grabbing people and throwing them into unmarked cars. With the telephone numbers available, it takes days for their families to make contact and get information.
We have THE BILL OF RIGHTS for a reason. Basic constitutional rights can’t be voted away in one election. Everyone one is entitled to Due Process.
On this Labor Day, in 2025, we need to think about all the workers who have contributed to this nation of ours. Millions should not have to live in fear in their own homes.
It is not fair. It is not right.

One Day in August
By
Gerry Niskern
“Do you remember what you were doing the day the war in the Pacific started?” I was surprised by that question from my new doctor, but I answered quickly. “ Sure, it was a Sunday morning in December and I was trying to practice a song for a Christmas program with a neighbor on the piano. Her husband kept turning the news on the radio up louder and louder and when she asked him to turn it down, he turned it louder still.” Of course he did. Pearl Harbor had just been attacked. We were at war!
I was nine years old. I remember going to school the next day and learning that a friend’s brother was stationed aboard the USS Arizona that sank at Pearl Harbor. I remember my cousin Billy, 18, immediately joining the Marines and going to fight in the Pacific. We soon learned that Uncle Joe who was a gunner on a destroyer was ordered from the Atlantic campaign to the Pacific battle, without a leave in between. His younger brother, Uncle Harry, was serving on a tanker in the navy too.
This past week marked the 80th year since the United States dropped the Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Much was written and televised about those momentous days this week. The devastation to the Japanese in those cities was unbelievable and staggering. Thankfully, no country has suffered the fate of the bomb since that infamous day in August, l945. Right now, nine countries around the world possess nuclear weapons. Many world wide organizations actively oppose nuclear weapons and Japan is a leader among them.
The Japanese started their war of aggression against neighboring countries in the Asia Pacific area in l93l. It culminated in their attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, l941. 111,606 U.S. servicemen were killed in the war that lasted almost four years. Without the bomb our country was facing many more months of death and destruction.
Then, when I was thirteen, I have vivid memories of people out in the streets, laughing and crying. The Japanese had surrendered. The war was over. On that day in August a Jeep load of young guys, from Luke Field, training to be fighter pilots, pulled up in front of our house, laughing and yelling to my older sister and a group of girls they had been dating, “The war over. We’re going home!”

Two Precious Dimes
By
Gerry Niskern
It’s a whole new world out there! Nothing is like it used to be! Young people to day don’t value traditions!
Sound familiar? We’ve all heard those laments by friends on the state of our culture today. And of course, a whole lot has changed in today’s traditions and ways of celebrating our life’s milestones.
Young people are looking at the old traditions with fresh eyes and deciding how to fit them into their own puzzle called life. We have all enjoyed the sense of comfort that comes with belonging to a family or group that gave us stabililty with simple traditions carried on year after year.
When I was a kid the whole extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins came out to our farm on every Sunday afternoon and brought their ice cream freezers, along with large blocks of ice. We furnished the milk and fruit: peaches, strawberries and apricots. The women mixed and then the men cranked and cranked and cranked. But, boy, was it worth it! What a summer tradition.
I ‘m sure you could name many more rituals that have continued, and yet changed. Have you ever received a birthday or Christmas card with a little money it for you? Another tradition that most families have.
The other day my great-grandson told me I would be getting a card soon from his daughter. When they were visiting a Farmer’s Market she was fascinated with a lady who was selling cards she had decorated with Swedish designs. “I’d like to send Grandma Gerry one of those cards,” she commented. The 7 year old wrote a message and they sent it to me. I was throwing the envelope away when I reallzed there was something clinking inside. Unbeknownest to her Daddy, she had slipped in two of her precious dimes for me.
I’m not worried. Our family’s traditions are in good hands.

“Don’t worry, the rain is coming”

By

Gerry Niskern

(This column from the Arizona Republic seems appropriate again!)
Well, it didn’t happen on the 4th, but it’s coming!

It’s late this year, and worrisome. We usually have a first big storm by the Fourth of July. But, relax, it’s coming, and it always comes with a bang! Here are some memories of past wet summers many years ago. Enjoy.
One day, years ago it was raining so hard I could hardly see them out on the sidewalk. One toddler ran by, laughing, the feet of his soggy sleepers slapping the pavement. Baby brother came into sight; his drenched diaper, laden with rainwater, dragging behind. Big sister in pink pajamas led the parade of upturned, wet faces squealing with the joy at the rain that had finally come after a long period of despair.
That year, in the late l950s’, the residents here in the valley had waited months for relief from the drought. On the days my children ran outside barefooted the pavement was scalding. The dry grass stubble was prickly and so were tempers. Respite came, as always, sometime in July.
We have had years of drought and years of unbelievable rains. That summer, before the rains came, the huge dust storms, the weathermen now call them Haboobs, left an inch layer of dirt on the bottom of everyone’s pool. The kids begged to swim, so I became an expert at pool vacuuming…every single morning!
The thunderstorms that sometimes come tearing thru the valley create havoc, but just manage to give everyone’s grass a good soaking. It’s hard to believe, but sometimes we do get too much precipitation.
Years ago, in the l940’s when I was a kid, the rain finally came and drenched the parched ground, but didn’t stop. The Cave Creek Dam finally broke. The railroad tracks along Nineteenth Ave dammed the water. The residential area around the Arizona State Capitol building had heavy flooding. We kids, in the blissful ignorance of childhood, just enjoyed riding our bikes through the knee high water flowing curb to curb in the streets. We didn’t realize that most of the businesses were sandbagged and the Capitol basement had flooded.
We were even treated to our first look at an U. S. Army amphibious vehicle. The Seventeenth Avenue underpass was flooded too and the kids all watched in awe as a group of soldiers came down the street and drove right through the deep water.
I’ll never forget my dad returning from hiking alone on South Mountain. He was caught in a downpour so hard that he said, “I couldn’t see or breathe. I was really beginning to panic!”
I remember a neighbor at that time telling my folks, “Back in l938, the Salt River really overflowed its banks. The Central Avenue Bridge was holding the water back and all of central Phoenix was in danger of being flooded. Just as they were ready to light the fuse to dynamite the bridge, the water started to subside.”
One other summer, when my kids were in their teens, around 1970, we lived in a different neighborhood and the rains were again unrelenting. The ground was saturated and one Saturday morning police drove through the area shouting on loud speakers, “Attention, Prepare to evacuate!” Arizona Canal just North a few blocks of us was starting to overflow its banks
The rains this summer won’t end the drought, only heavy winter snows do that; but as always, they will surely nourish our spirits.
Meanwhile, the scent of wet creosote bushes on the mountain above me, mixed with the pungent smell of desert grass below will be like heaven as I watch the rabbits and quail scurrying for shelter from the rain that is sure to come soon.

“Don’t worry, the rain is coming”

By

Gerry Niskern

(This column from the Arizona Republic seems appropriate again!)
Well, it didn’t happen on the 4th, but it’s coming!

It’s late this year, and worrisome. We usually have a first big storm by the Fourth of July. But, relax, it’s coming, and it always comes with a bang! Here are some memories of past wet summers many years ago. Enjoy.
One day, years ago it was raining so hard I could hardly see them out on the sidewalk. One toddler ran by, laughing, the feet of his soggy sleepers slapping the pavement. Baby brother came into sight; his drenched diaper, laden with rainwater, dragging behind. Big sister in pink pajamas led the parade of upturned, wet faces squealing with the joy at the rain that had finally come after a long period of despair.
That year, in the late l950s’, the residents here in the valley had waited months for relief from the drought. On the days my children ran outside barefooted the pavement was scalding. The dry grass stubble was prickly and so were tempers. Respite came, as always, sometime in July.
We have had years of drought and years of unbelievable rains. That summer, before the rains came, the huge dust storms, the weathermen now call them Haboobs, left an inch layer of dirt on the bottom of everyone’s pool. The kids begged to swim, so I became an expert at pool vacuuming…every single morning!
The thunderstorms that sometimes come tearing thru the valley create havoc, but just manage to give everyone’s grass a good soaking. It’s hard to believe, but sometimes we do get too much precipitation.
Years ago, in the l940’s when I was a kid, the rain finally came and drenched the parched ground, but didn’t stop. The Cave Creek Dam finally broke. The railroad tracks along Nineteenth Ave dammed the water. The residential area around the Arizona State Capitol building had heavy flooding. We kids, in the blissful ignorance of childhood, just enjoyed riding our bikes through the knee high water flowing curb to curb in the streets. We didn’t realize that most of the businesses were sandbagged and the Capitol basement had flooded.
We were even treated to our first look at an U. S. Army amphibious vehicle. The Seventeenth Avenue underpass was flooded too and the kids all watched in awe as a group of soldiers came down the street and drove right through the deep water.
I’ll never forget my dad returning from hiking alone on South Mountain. He was caught in a downpour so hard that he said, “I couldn’t see or breathe. I was really beginning to panic!”
I remember a neighbor at that time telling my folks, “Back in l938, the Salt River really overflowed its banks. The Central Avenue Bridge was holding the water back and all of central Phoenix was in danger of being flooded. Just as they were ready to light the fuse to dynamite the bridge, the water started to subside.”
One other summer, when my kids were in their teens, around 1970, we lived in a different neighborhood and the rains were again unrelenting. The ground was saturated and one Saturday morning police drove through the area shouting on loud speakers, “Attention, Prepare to evacuate!” Arizona Canal just North a few blocks of us was starting to overflow its banks
The rains this summer won’t end the drought, only heavy winter snows do that; but as always, they will surely nourish our spirits.
Meanwhile, the scent of wet creosote bushes on the mountain above me, mixed with the pungent smell of desert grass below will be like heaven as I watch the rabbits and quail scurrying for shelter from the rain that is sure to come soon.

“Don’t worry, the rain is coming”

By

Gerry Niskern

(This column from the Arizona Republic seems appropriate again!)
Well, it didn’t happen on the 4th, but it’s coming!

It’s late this year, and worrisome. We usually have a first big storm by the Fourth of July. But, relax, it’s coming, and it always comes with a bang! Here are some memories of past wet summers many years ago. Enjoy.
One day, years ago it was raining so hard I could hardly see them out on the sidewalk. One toddler ran by, laughing, the feet of his soggy sleepers slapping the pavement. Baby brother came into sight; his drenched diaper, laden with rainwater, dragging behind. Big sister in pink pajamas led the parade of upturned, wet faces squealing with the joy at the rain that had finally come after a long period of despair.
That year, in the late l950s’, the residents here in the valley had waited months for relief from the drought. On the days my children ran outside barefooted the pavement was scalding. The dry grass stubble was prickly and so were tempers. Respite came, as always, sometime in July.
We have had years of drought and years of unbelievable rains. That summer, before the rains came, the huge dust storms, the weathermen now call them Haboobs, left an inch layer of dirt on the bottom of everyone’s pool. The kids begged to swim, so I became an expert at pool vacuuming…every single morning!
The thunderstorms that sometimes come tearing thru the valley create havoc, but just manage to give everyone’s grass a good soaking. It’s hard to believe, but sometimes we do get too much precipitation.
Years ago, in the l940’s when I was a kid, the rain finally came and drenched the parched ground, but didn’t stop. The Cave Creek Dam finally broke. The railroad tracks along Nineteenth Ave dammed the water. The residential area around the Arizona State Capitol building had heavy flooding. We kids, in the blissful ignorance of childhood, just enjoyed riding our bikes through the knee high water flowing curb to curb in the streets. We didn’t realize that most of the businesses were sandbagged and the Capitol basement had flooded.
We were even treated to our first look at an U. S. Army amphibious vehicle. The Seventeenth Avenue underpass was flooded too and the kids all watched in awe as a group of soldiers came down the street and drove right through the deep water.
I’ll never forget my dad returning from hiking alone on South Mountain. He was caught in a downpour so hard that he said, “I couldn’t see or breathe. I was really beginning to panic!”
I remember a neighbor at that time telling my folks, “Back in l938, the Salt River really overflowed its banks. The Central Avenue Bridge was holding the water back and all of central Phoenix was in danger of being flooded. Just as they were ready to light the fuse to dynamite the bridge, the water started to subside.”
One other summer, when my kids were in their teens, around 1970, we lived in a different neighborhood and the rains were again unrelenting. The ground was saturated and one Saturday morning police drove through the area shouting on loud speakers, “Attention, Prepare to evacuate!” Arizona Canal just North a few blocks of us was starting to overflow its banks
The rains this summer won’t end the drought, only heavy winter snows do that; but as always, they will surely nourish our spirits.
Meanwhile, the scent of wet creosote bushes on the mountain above me, mixed with the pungent smell of desert grass below will be like heaven as I watch the rabbits and quail scurrying for shelter from the rain that is sure to come soon.