Excerpt from An Orange From Portugal

Hard to believe it is already December. A lot has changed since decorating trees, wrapping gifts, or the lighting of the menorah last year. As we celebrate the holidays a little differently this year — and perhaps more distanced than we’d like — at least we can be grateful for the technology at hand. Though we’d rather be in person, sharing tidings and good will through video calls will help make the season a little brighter.

With this in mind, we wanted to share this short story from An Orange From Portugal, one of the titles featured in our Curated Holiday Collection. In this tale, a young girl experiences a Christmas miracle through a staticky voice in a radio broadcast.

“The Radio”

— Elsie Charles Basque

I was about eight years old when radio first came to Hectanooga. Oliver and Nellie Saulnier had just arrived from the States with this new invention.

A box-like contraption sat on a table. A large disc-shaped gadget about three feet in diameter hung on the wall. This was the speaker. If the audience consisted of several people, wires were adjusted, knobs were turned, and voila! voices, music boomed out of the wall. If only one or two persons wanted to enjoy this phenomenon, then earphones were easily accessible. What a marvellous invention!

It was sometime in November when Papa and I went to see, hear, explore this wondrous discovery.

We sat in the holiest of holies . . . the living room or parlour as it was commonly called, way back then. Only the priest on his yearly visit was allowed in there, but now . . . this new miracle introduced us not only to the world, but to the parlour as well.

I was so enthralled. Voices, music seemed to be coming out of the wall. There was a lot of static, but in my child mind, that was the way it was supposed to be.

Suddenly, sleigh bells were heard, at first from a distance, then, closer and closer. Santa’s voice boomed loud and clear . . . “Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas, everybody . . .”

I climbed on Papa’s knee, speechless and spellbound. I had heard Santa’s voice! I really and truly heard Santa Claus’s voice! He was calling boys and girls by name. I was too excited to know if he had called my name or not. Unbelievable! As I remember, it only lasted a few minutes, but what a few minutes it was.

On our way home later on, Papa carrying a lantern in one hand, and mine carefully tucked in his other hand, he talked about the miracle we had just witnessed.

“Voices spoken as far away as New York! Heard as plainly as if they were in the very same room. This new invention will be improved upon. Some day we’ll hear people from all over the world talking to us,” Papa prophesied.

Nick Boudreau, who owned the only store in Hectanooga, was probably the first to invest in this new media. A large console model sat in the middle of the store. On “Fight Nights,” the whole neighbourhood gathered to listen to such greats as Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, and Max Schmelling among others.

Our world was getting smaller.

“The Radio” copyright © by Elsie Charles Basque from An Orange from Portugal: Christmas Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland, edited by Anne Simpson