(Annie Oakley was an American Sharpshooter 1860-1926)
It was Christmas Eve, 1952, in Saint John NB. My older brother Norman and I were playing outside in the falling snow with some kids from across the street. Later, a discussion of who was, or wasn’t decorating their family’s Christmas tree on Christmas Eve turned into a heated argument.
We told them that our parents always decorated our tree right after supper on Christmas Eve. They were adamant that their family didn’t decorate their tree at all, but left that job for Santa Claus when he brought their presents.
Norm and I, knowing how long it took mom and dad to decorate our tree, got really angry.
We shouted, “No way! You’re supposed to decorate your own tree! That’s not fair because that will slow Santa down and he might not make it across the street to our flat in time to bring us our Christmas presents!”
When they wouldn’t change their minds we went home feeling defeated and worried Santa might not make it to our flat on time!
Well Santa did get to our flat on time!
On Christmas morning Norm and I were up early. We woke our younger siblings: Glen, Kenny and two-year-old Mary, and took them to see their presents under the tree.
Next we opened our extra-long, extra-warm, knee-high, winter stockings to see what Santa had put inside. We found an orange, a bunch of grapes wrapped in tissue paper, a large, translucent candy shaped like an animal or sailing ship called a barley toy, a small box of Sun Maid raisins, some ribbon candy, some pink ‘chicken bones’ candy and a small knick-knack to play with. All these items were a big treat and we were delighted to have them.
That Christmas Santa Claus brought both Norm and me, a red straw cowboy hat and a pop gun that could shoot a cork on a string a distance of about two feet! We played with them most of Christmas Day and we were always excited when the corks hit and our targets fell over.
Our little sister Mary, who was just old enough to walk, was watching us play with the guns. While clinging to her new dolly she tried several times to get the guns from us but we wouldn’t let her hold them, because Mom had warned us that pop guns just weren’t a safe toy for her to play with.
After eating Mom’s wonderful turkey dinner with all the trimmings we decided to play a board game called Snakes & Ladders so we put the pop guns under the Christmas tree, loaded, ready to fire.
While we were distracted Mary put one of our straw cowboy hats on her head and waddled over to the Christmas tree and picked up both loaded pop guns.
Then the unimaginable happened.
Mary pointed each of the cork guns at two delicate glass tree ornaments at point blank range, and pulled the triggers. We heard “POP—POP”! and in the blink of an eye two of Mom’s beautiful tree ornaments were shattered!
Mary seemed happy with her aim because she was doing a little dance and giggling with delight.
We knew we were partly responsible for setting up this event by leaving the loaded pop guns under the tree where Mary could find them. But everything ended well because at the family council meeting that followed Mary’s lawyer—our Mom—presented a good defense by announcing that it was time for Mary’s diaper change and that Norman and I could clean up the broken ornaments.
Raymond Pierce is a Storyteller living in Toronto, Canada
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