Christmas on the Farm | Eastern North Carolina Now

Christmas on the Farm

BY:  BUZZ CAYTON

BOOTS

The year before my first year in school we were on my dad’s farm in his first house.  Things were tough and to feed us, Dad was farming, hunting, guiding hunting parties and keeping hunting dogs.

About four miles from our house was Rob Cox’s General Store.  Rob had helped my dad get his small farm and house.  This was the place where we got our basic items.  Rob had everything from groceries to horse collars and clothes.

When Dad would take me with him to pick up supplies, I would run over and look longingly at a pair of leather lace-up boots that had a small holster on the side to hold a pocketknife.  I could not get these boots out of my mind.  I really wanted to one day own a pair of boots like that.

Dad explained that we just could not afford them right now.

I listened to the hunters that came to our house as they told of their prowess and how they had killed a bear or deer or birds.  I digested every word.  My next wish was to get big enough to go with them on a big hunt.

As the men would gather in our house before a hunt, I would tell them about the stories that I had heard and especially about the bear hunts.  I would also tell them that when I got to work, I was going to get me that pair of boots with the holster on the side in Rob Cox’s store.

The hunters who came could afford to travel and hire a guide like my dad.  They were not poor.  Most were fascinated that I could relate the stories that I had heard in detail.  I may have even added a little bit to them.

Christmas was coming soon, and this was hunting season so some of the hunters came often, and some stayed a while.

I had mother help me write a letter to Santa Claus asking for those boots.

I’m sure it was tough on Dad knowing how much I wanted those boots and feeling like we had to have necessary things first.

About two days before Christmas, a big package came post marked Wilson, North Carolina, about sixty miles away, addressed to “The Little Bear Hunter.”  Mother said that it was for me.

I tore into the package and there were my boots with the pocketknife holster on the side along with a plaid shirt and a pair of hunting pants.  I was jumping and laughing.  Mom and Dad were crying.  Hunters have a heart.

One of my happiest Christmases.