Chapter 19 - Gibbon's Secrets - December 1941

     December 15th 1941, the Gibbon Grade School presented the Christmas program that they had been working on, well ahead of the attack by the Japanese.  The kids had been working hard on their program.  The school administration felt, in light of the current world situation, that it would be good for the morale of the community for them to go ahead with their performance.  The program consisted of several different scenes, starting with singing from the kindergarten group.  Bud was proud that his friends were really involved in many of the areas of the program.
     Jimmy Lyons, Donny Hawke, Jackie Sigler, Jerry L Randall, and Charlotte DeBrie were among the group in 'Old King Cole's Christmas'.  Marilyn Kirk was featured in, 'Kitty's Present'.  Marilyn Kirk, Bud Phelps and Duncan McGregor were among the characters of, 'Christmas Eve at Home'.  Christmas carols were sung by grades five through eight, which included all of Bud's friends.  When the entire cast came out for their final bows, they received a standing ovation from the attendees.  The crowd of people in attendance for this "Christmas Carol Program" started the evening with heavy hearts, but left the auditorium with smiles on their faces.  They all were thanking the Lord for the innocence of these Gibbon Grade School students, and the joy they brought to everyone this night.

The information shown above from the "Christmas Carol Program" was taken from an original program that Duncan McGregor had saved.  When I was visiting with Duncan, during one of my research trips to Gibbon, he showed me several programs from our grade school years, and made copies of them for me to utilize in my book "Gibbon's Secrets".  I thought it was so amazing that he had saved those little memo graphed programs over all these years.  1941 was a bleak Christmas in  Gibbon and one that I have special memories of - my folks did their best to still make it special.