This is Beth.  She was born in 1919 – that was 100 years ago. Beth was the youngest child in her family. She had two older sisters and two older brothers. There was also an older sister that died as a child that Beth didn’t ever know. One Christmas when she was about 8 years old – I think she was in third grade – she had an especially fun Christmas morning surprise.

Beth’s family had recently moved to Ogden where her father ran a Piggly Wiggly store. But that didn’t work out and he bought a grocery store in Salt Lake City.  Since the children were already in school, Beth’s mom and siblings stayed in Ogden for the school year and her dad came home to Ogden for the weekends.  She missed him so much that year. That was also the year her next older sister, Eunice, was ill a lot with Rheumatic Fever and was in bed most of the time. So, it was a hard year and they all knew that it would be a skimpy Christmas. In those days the children didn’t have fancy special Christmas stockings to hang for Santa to fill. They just used their own everyday socks. So, they always found their biggest, longest socks to hang. Beth was the youngest and so her sock was the smallest.

On Christmas morning, Beth woke up excited to see what was in her sock. She was so surprised to see that instead of a bulging stocking, there was a string tied around the toe! She had to follow that string all around the house to find her Christmas gifts. There were different things tied to the string every couple feet – things like new socks, shoes and underwear – but the best things on the string were the most wonderful little celluloid animals (celluloid was kind of like plastic). These little toy animals weren’t just ordinary barnyard animals – they were wonderful exotic jungle animals. Lions and tigers, giraffes and elephants and other jungle animals! These were special toys and so fun to play with. You could pretend so many things with them. Beth thought that it was especially fun to have her whole Christmas on a string. It was something she remembered the rest of her life.

– Beth Ann Hammer, Consultant, Granite Family History Center