Wrangell senior remembers Christmas in the 40’s

Christmas, as a remembrance of the birth of Jesus Christ may never change, but the times we live and celebrate in do.

The prism of the past may be cloudy for some who lived in Wrangell in the early 20th century, but for others, not so dim.

In December of 1944, it was a time before television. Franklin D. Roosevelt had just been re-elected for a fourth term, and Wrangell native Willie Eyon can clearly tell you about what happened on Front Street as the holidays came to the island.

One of Eyon’s most memorable recollections, he said, was of how the students at the different schools in Wrangell would come down the hill for a special day in downtown.

“The students would come down and go to the Coliseum Theater to see a movie that was special for the holiday,” Eyon said. “We’d all go down as a group and it was a really special day for all of us as kids.”

The movie, Eyon said, was made possible by a coalition of businesses in the downtown area, and the showings, while open to the students, were closed to the general public.

The building that housed the Coliseum, later called the 49th Star Theater, now houses the Wrangell Sentinel and Wrangell Cooperative Association.

For Eyon, the long holiday season, that begins in November and runs through Christmas, is far different from what the community did then.

“It was a lot shorter of an event in those days,” Eyon said. “It started about a week before Christmas and ended just after.”

The city Christmas tree was also located in a place more centralized. “The tree, in those days, wasn’t down by the Elks but it was right in the middle of Front Street,” Eyon added. “It was right next to where the Alley Cat store was and you use to have to drive around it.”

The church-going life was also a big part of the holidays, according to Eyon, as families would attend the worship house of their particular faith for a holiday meal and sermon.

“I can recall going to church with my family,” Eyon said. “In those days, you went to the church you went to on Sunday with your family, so if you were Catholic, you went to their church, and if you were Episcopalian, you went there.”

Eyon added that his mother, Edna Haaseth, accompanied him on those church-going trips along with his stepfather, Ole Haaseth and his 4 siblings.

And for anyone who, like Eyon, celebrated Christmas in 1944, there is one memory that was recorded in the archived Wrangell Sentinel from December 22 – a handwritten note attached at the end of the paper that reads, “6 1/2 inches of snow on Dec. 25, 1944.”