A Senior Remembers: A Parcel From Eaton’s

We got a parcel from Eaton’s once. We all helped Mumma pick what we needed and then we helped her write the order. She didn’t need help doing the writing. She just needed us to help her decide. We all had something to say when she showed us the pages of blankets and stuff for cooking. Then we looked at the pictures of the rolls of cloth for sewing. We each could pick one we liked best for the new summer dresses Mumma would make. I picked a light mauve one, which looked like the sky just before the sun went down. It had pictures of little flowers going all across it in lines. I cut the picture out, and kept it in a dresser drawer so I could look at it and imagine the dress Mumma would make for me.

Then we looked at the shoes and the underclothes. Mumma picked all of the panties and under shirts and stockings. She wrote down an order for the ugly stockings that we had to wear in winter. This time the shoes I chose were not for wearing every day. They were round in the toes, and had a strap across the top. They were black patent leather, and they were called Mary Janes. When they came, Mumma said, they were special and I could only wear them for church.  But I think she knew I would wear them more than that, around the house.

We were excited because the parcel was coming tonight.  Our Dad got Baldy and Fanny ready in the afternoon, and took hay and mush for them in the sled. The snow was deep, and we waved at him from the window as the team made tracks in the snow and disappeared when they got to the corner.  Poor Baldy and Fanny, we said, they’ll be so cold and tired.

“Nah.” Mumma said, “They love to pull the sled and go somewhere. They are getting lazy just standing around in the barn.”

So we stopped worrying about them and did something else instead. There was lots to do. Mumma said we had to have the whole house tidy and ready, so we could spread everything out and check it. June was in charge, like she always was. She gave us all chores to do. I had to bring the wood in and pile it behind the stove. April had to help feed Eddy and change the baby. Eddy didn’t understand that we were all excited about the parcel, and he had to be good. So he was his usual self and ran around  and teased us.  But the baby was so good, and after I got the wood I held her for a long time.

Suddenly April started to scream, “There’s a light coming! I see it! I see it!” We all ran to the bedroom window and sure enough, we could see a tiny light, way in the distance, bobbing and moving from side to side. “It’s really close,” April said, and jumped up and down.

“No it isn’t close.” June said. She always knew things. “It’s quite far away. It’s exactly at the church, only halfway between Burmie’s Road and here. He will be at least another half hour. So get busy and finish your chores. Right, Mumma?” “Of course,” said Mumma, who always agreed with her.

But she was wrong. Baldy and Fanny wanted to get home fast, so they did. And before we knew it, the door opened, and there was our Dad, stomping the snow off of his boots, and letting the cold air in the kitchen. He had one parcel in his hand. It was quite little. We all looked disappointed, even Mumma. But he went out again, and when he came back, he was dragging a really big cardboard parcel, all wrapped in brown paper and twine.  April and I were still jumping up and down; we could hardly wait for them to be opened. Eddie went up to the parcels and scraped some of the snow off, trying to read the words on them. “General Delivery,” we read to him, “Grimshaw, Alberta, Canada.”

When the horses were put in the barn and fed, our Dad came back and started to open the boxes. He spread them out on the kitchen floor and on the table. All of the things we ordered were wrapped in smaller parcels of tan colored paper. Mumma looked at the pile and reached in to pick them up one by one. She gave the first one to Eddie, and said. “Be careful, don’t tear the paper. We can use it for drawing and coloring.” But Eddie tore a small corner anyway, and out popped a truck. He just took it quietly and walked away with a big smile on his face. It was exactly what he wanted! Next,  Mumma opened a little parcel with a small rubber squeezie toy and gave it to the baby.  Then it was April’s turn, and she got a big doll, with a head that turned, and eyes that opened and closed. She hugged the doll, and even though I wanted to see it, I knew I would have to wait a while.

Suddenly, it was my turn. I got a doll too, a smaller one. But I didn’t care, I was waiting for the really important thing I ordered. There were still many parcels to go, and I was sure it was there, somewhere in the pile. I waited until Mumma and June got their parcels, which were underclothes, I think. I waited until they unpacked the new Hudson Bay blankets, the new pot Mumma wanted for making soup, and the boots and heavy socks our Dad ordered. I began to play with my new doll, looking at her bonnet and the tiny black shoes with the strap going across. Just then, Mumma lifted the last parcel out of the box and gave it to me. I squeezed it and turned it over and over. I didn’t care if I creased the paper. I thought I knew what it was, but I didn’t want to end the surprise. “Oh, for goodness sake,” June said, “Open it!”  So I did—and they were shoes! I put them on right away, and I walked all around in the house, until I got used to them. They were exactly what I wanted, and they looked just like the picture in the catalogue—with shiny patent leather, and the strap going across.