OUR SMITH FAMILY STORY PART FIVE by Lorena May Smith, my Aunt. 10/7/2009

The Christmas Donald was born she made me a whole layette for a small baby doll, which was why, probably, that I had not much interest in him, Arthur thought he was his personal present. Neil, not much older than I didn't take too much interest either. Dorothy told me in after years that she just looked on him as another baby to sit. We all loved each other anyway, but being so young we were self absorbed, interested and excited about Christmas. We always had a Xmas tree with candles on it, but Mama would not light them because she was so afraid of fire, having been in a couple of forest fires up north. Mama also made most of our clothes, even the boys, she made alot of her own patterns. She was often asked to make some things for other peoples children. The town had a loud whistle which blew at 7, 12, & 6 pm. and for fires or other disasters. There were a couple of fires that I vividly remember. One we watched from the upstairs landing that lit up the whole town. We thought it was the school, but it was a livery stable behind one of the hotels in the middle of town. Unfortunately, some of the horses did not get out before it burned down. A few years later a whole block of stores on Main Street burned down and it was a while before they were all replaced.