Saturday, December 25
Warn and hard rain in am, 50, becoming colder at night and some snow. We were all at Mother's for Christmas. LaVerne's, Wayne and Laura came in pm. Gerald and Mary Ann left at about 530 pm for Gloversville. We got home 9:15 pm.
Comment: Bessie, or "Mother", was 73 at the time, younger than I am now by 13 years...amazing somehow...Mom was 52 and Dad 57...that seems young now...
Christmas, 1914, WWI, Trenches In Europe, the troops held their own Christmas celebration for a day and then went back to killing each other. The Christmas Truce, which I'm sure pissed off most of the top brass, occurred spontaneously:
On and around Christmas Day 1914, the sounds of rifles firing and shells exploding fade in a number of places along the Western Front in favor of holiday celebrations in the trenches and gestures of goodwill between enemies.
Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.
At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man's-land, calling out "Merry Christmas" in their enemies' native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer.
Some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man's land between the lines.
The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. It was never repeated—future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by officers' threats of disciplinary action—but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons, the soldiers' essential humanity endured. Wikipedia...
In the fall we’d often kill a pig and hang it from a tripod rig and gut it out to take inside to treat.
Comment: Mom always keeps busy..The oldest known resident from Gilboa...from the Devonian Period, and this is how the world looked at the time, about 400 million years ago....take a look..Gilboa_Fossil_Forest
Comment: Ferdinand Bates Haskin was the son of Almearon Haskin, (brother to my grandmother Agnes Haskin), and therefore Dad's first cousin on his mother's side. Ethel Bates Haskin was Charlotte Haskin's grandmother and "Bates" was her father. Ethel maintained a diary off and on starting in 1929 and there are many entries about the interactions of Agnes's Hubbard children and Ethel Haskin's children. This is a picture of my grandmother, Agnes, with her brother Almearon Haskin, he was 86 years old when he died April 5, 1961, and she was 67 when she died on January 13, 1946. I vividly remember her on her death bed taking great heaving breaths dying from congestive heart failure, a process that had taken many hours as her large extended family grieved. LaVerne, Marilyn and I were taken in individually to her so she could say goodbye....I was 8, Marilyn 10 and LaVerne 12. Here is an email from Charlotte Haskin Carlton about Haskins, Halleck's and her family: Happy New Year to you and Mary Ann and the family, I enjoyed your family picture and the grandchildren have grown up so fast. Aunt Maude called yesterday and chatted she is doing well. She has to stay home and that is depressing for her yesterday was one of the luncheons she attends and too much ice and snow for her to go. The diary entry today reminded me of the winter Daddy passed away and we all went home for his funeral and it was bitter cold. Didn't realize it was today. Loved the picture of Grandma Haskin's home wonder what she would think if she could see it now. I enjoy all your old pictures and told Aunt Maude yesterday about the pictures of the town of Gilboa before the dam construction and she remembers everything. Bee's health is better this year so that is good news. Aunt Maude told me David Halleck's daughter that lives by the Flat Creek church and her husband have taken over the Halleck farm and are milking cows. Upgraded the barn and producing milk now. 
Comment: I guess Dad went to work at a lower rate than an Operator just to have the work...rather than operate the machine, an oiler starts it, lubricates it, shuts it down and generally watches over it while it is operating...still a union job and also pays pretty well.
