“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” is the title of a song that seems to have been running through my mind since the year 1945, when it was first sung by Bing Crosby. I first heard it when our oldest sister had a phone call from her husband, who happened to be in the Navy and was stationed in California.
When her husband wanted to call her, he had to call the lady across the street because we didn’t have a telephone. So, he called that lady and she came over to our house to get Ginny so she could talk to him. He had a nickname of “Bud.”
I was still in elementary school, but got to go with Ginny and sit in the lady’s kitchen while Bud talked to her on the phone in the living room.
The lady across the street had her radio on while I was there, and I heard the song, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” And then when the war was over, it was the perfect song to be singing because now it meant that all of the servicemen would get to come home. And every year since, I have been reminded of how great it was back then when WWII was over.
During that time, my whole family was living in one house on Union Street. There were 11 then. (Our parents, Bud and Ginny and their daughter, Donna, and the rest of my five siblings and me.) That was the year of my fondest memories of Christmas as a kid. We were all giving little gifts to each other. Things like a candy bar, a ballon, crayons, and even a spool of thread for our mom. Everything was wrapped in the paper we saved from the comic section of our Sunday paper. I can still see all those gifts under the tree that Christmas morning.
Since Bud had a nickname, I think he wanted everyone else to have one, too. He gave me the nickname of “Mopsy.”
Mopsy was a comic strip of a girl whose hair was a mess. And mine must have been a mess because he took up a collection to see that I got a hair cut and a perm. Other nicknames I remember were “Ding Bat,” and “Chope.”
Because of having to spend a lot of time in the water of the Pacific Ocean, Bud wasn’t well in his later years and was only 57 when he died.
If you do not know the words to “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” you can put the title in your computer and bring up either Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, or Frank Sinatra to sing it for you. And just yesterday, Dec. 7, there was a commercial on TV using that very same song. (That was almost 80 years after it had been written.)
Here are the words that are very well known at this time of year:
“I’ll be Home for Christmas,
You can plan on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe,
And presents on the tree.
Christmas eve will find me
Where the love light gleams.
I’ll be home for Christmas,
If only in my dreams.”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone in the world would get to come home for Christmas this year! If that could only happen, it would be the best merry Christmas ever!
Kay E. Conklin is a retired Delaware County recorder who served four terms. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a degree in sociology and anthropology.
