Christmas morning in Monongah, West Virginia

This series of photos celebrates memories of a Christmas past in my husband's family. The children pictured below are my husband Charles and his sister Colleen. The photos were taken at their home in Monongah, West Virginia in the late 1950s. 

Christmas morning that year turned out to be a musical one. Charlie told me the instruments did in fact play music, if you knew how to play them. Charlie didn't know how to play the clarinet at the time, but he did go on to play the trumpet in his high school band. 

Charlie remembers the train set in the next two photos. He loved it and tried, without any luck, to find one for our boys. The train set stayed in the family until at least the 1970s.

 

Santa was good to Charlie that year. Besides the clarinet, you can see he got a Huckleberry Hound bowling game, train set, Block City building blocks, a farm set, gun and holster, what we think are several cars or model car sets, maybe a book, and some clothes.

The next photo is the Bridge Street house they lived in that Christmas. Charlie estimates living there four or five years before moving to Virginia.

I hope Santa to good to you this year. Merry Christmas!