Christmas Time 1964

   Once again, Christmas has come and gone – until this time next year. Many people are counting their Christmas gifts and are giving thanks for all that’s been received from the Father as well as friends and relatives. Many are also thinking about the joy they’ve created for others in the gifts provided to them. Still others become a little depressed during the Christmas holiday in reflecting back on loved ones lost. It’s only natural for a tear to be shed during Christmas, when we think about those not with us. We think about those we loved most, especially if they were lost during Christmas time.

   My thoughts of friends lost during the Christmas holiday season go back to my seventh Christmas, 1964, in Lindsay, Oklahoma. My friend, Ray Snelson, who went to elementary school with me, was an ordinary first grader by anyone’s standards. He was one of the first friends I ever had, which is why I still think of him, usually around Christmas time. As a matter of fact, I was thinking of Ray just this past week when another friend posted a yearbook picture of him on facebook. He was smiling like kids do when the photographer says “say cheese”. The photo was taken during the Fall of 1964, 52 years ago, and Ray would never see Christmas that year. I remember “playing army” at recess time in the early Fall of that year with Ray. In my mind’s eye, I can still see him clearly with his rolled up levis (probably hand-me-downs) and dirty (from “hitting the dirt” at recess) white T-shirt. No boys could keep clean clothes in those days. We had no electronic games, no computers (I don’t think “computer” was even a word in 1964), no specialized sports gear, and usually only one ball (not a football, basketball, or softball) a dark red, round ball – used only for dodgeball. The girls usually played on the one slide, merry-go-round, or swings, while the boys who didn’t have access to the ball each day played “army”.

   We got out of school for the Christmas holidays that year on around the 18^th of December. On December 20, 1964, Ray Snelson fell through the ice on a frozen farm pond. He never made it out, and died that day so long ago. I’m not real clear on the details, since I was very young at that time. I remember my mother coming home from a grocery trip (and it WAS a trip, since we lived seven miles from the nearest grocery), and telling my sister, brother, and me that Ray Snelson had fallen through the ice on a pond and had not made it out. Many people remember where they were and what they were doing when hearing that a famous person, such as John F. Kennedy or Elvis Presley has died. I remember where I was (in my grandparents front yard, on Rush Creek), and what I was doing (kicking a football to Johnny, my younger brother) when I heard that Ray had died.

   I still visit Ray’s gravesite in Green Hill Cemetery north of Lindsay, every now and then, and still shed a tear when I think of him. Ray will stay a seven year old child forever to those that knew him, and will be a seven year old child when we see him again. Merry Christmas to Ray Snelson...  from those that loved him..