‘It was the last quarter in the kettle that did it’
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following Christmas story was submitted by Morris Haugg.
This is a true story. It was told to me some 50 years ago, but I have never forgotten it. It is the story of a man who had just lost his job with the Department of Highways due to a change in government following a provincial election just a few weeks previously. Yes, that is what happened in those “good old days.”
By mid-December, he still had not managed to find another job. Money was running very low, and Christmas was approaching. His family — a wife and five children still at home — was not starving, however. They kept a big garden, chickens and rabbits and had lots of edibles stored for the winter. There was also a big buck in the freezer. But there was no money for anything extra; nothing to prepare for the coming holidays.
A few days before Christmas, his wife gave him the last $20 bill in the house. She asked him to buy a small, frozen turkey and a bit of something for the children. She told him that Goodwin’s Supermarket had a special on frozen turkeys. Even 50 years ago, $20 didn’t go far. He bought some oranges and chocolates and some candy. Toys of any kind were not on the list. Before he got to Goodwin’s, he walked past a ladies store where he saw some fancy beige-coloured leather gloves in the show window. He thought of his wife and her habit of wearing gloves when going to church. She did it to hide her calloused hands, red and blotchy from all her hard work caring for her family. The gloves she had been using were all worn out. The man was overcome with the need to do something for his wife — to show that he loved her and to thank her. He walked into the store and asked about the gloves in the window. The salesgirl fetched another pair from a drawer. They looked too small and a larger size was produced.
“I will take these,” he said, and the girl proceeded to place them in a box. He was so pleased with himself as he imagined his wife’s joy and happiness. He had not asked for the price. After he had paid, he realized that the gloves were much more costly than he had imagined. As he left the store, he had exactly 50 cents left. Certainly not enough for a turkey, however small. Half a dollar. That was it. Now he didn’t know what to do. He walked along Victoria Street in a bit of a daze. Then he noticed a billboard advertising that a church group was selling tickets on a Christmas turkey. He went into the church and there, next to the table where two ladies were handling the raffle tickets, he saw a picture of a huge, brown turkey, perfectly cooked on a large platter, surrounded by all the trimmings, as the saying goes. One ticket was 25 cents. He bought a ticket and carefully put it in his pocket. Somehow, he felt better now. Wouldn’t that big turkey be just right for his family. When the man told me his story, he said that he can’t explain why he didn’t buy two tickets with the two quarters he had left.
He said he left the church and crossed the street, where he met up with a uniformed
Salvation Army lady, smiling next to her donation kettle. There was a Christmas Carol wafting out to the sidewalk from Pugsley’s Pharmacy. He said he wasn’t sure whether the Christmas music had anything to do with it, but he ended up dropping his last quarter into Salvation Army kettle.
He didn’t tell me what happened when he got home without a turkey. What he did tell me is that on the morning of Christmas Eve, his wife answered the telephone and was told that her husband had won the church turkey. When he brought it home, it was so big that he invited his three older children, who were no longer living at home, plus two sons-in-law and one grandchild to join them for a grand turkey dinner on Christmas Day. As they were all sitting around, waiting for the turkey to be carved, the wife asked them to bow their heads as she said her usual Grace. This time, she added some extra words: “I don’t think it was the raffle ticket which brought us this turkey. It was the last quarter in the kettle that did it.”