Longtime resident seeks clues to Christmas past

Twila Watkins has a mystery on her hands, and it’s one that surfaced — most appropriately — just in time for Christmas.

A few weeks ago, Watkins was helping her nephew go through some old family belongings that had been in storage for years. They came across a battered cardboard box labeled “The 12 Days of Christmas.”

“I said, ‘I think I know what that is,’” Watkins recalled.

Her husband Gary chimed in, “The look in her face was priceless.”

It was a box that took Watkins straight back to her childhood.

Watkins’ parents, Stan and Betty Hardin, moved to Portales in 1954. Stan was a chiropractor, Watkins said, and “a different kind of person.”

He rode a unicycle to work, prided himself on knowing most of the words in the dictionary, and did some magic on the side.

In 1956 — little Twila’s second Christmas — her mother started receiving anonymous packages on the 14th of December.

The first was a plastic tree with a shiny metallic bird — a partridge in a pear tree, if you will.

The next day, another anonymous package was delivered with two tiny bird pins, the kind you’d buy at a five and dime. It only took a little imagination to guess they were turtle doves.

The packages continued day by day, but all arrived anonymously, and all were creative incarnations of the familiar lyrics: six pink towels and wash cloths each hand-painted with a goose and egg, seven cans of White Swan brand veggies, 10 tiny paper “lords” probably snipped from wrapping paper and glued to a framed poem.

The final package came with a letter addressed to “My True Love,” and said, in part, “I have heard you suspect your husband of doing all this; but I can assure you he would never have thot (sic) of it at all. And I’ll bet he doesn’t have any idea who is doing it unless you’ve told him about me.”

It was signed, “Your True Love, Este Ayun.”

It didn’t take Betty long to recognize her husband Stan’s pen name: An exaggerated version of his first name spelled aloud: S-T-A-N.

Although Watkins obviously doesn’t remember the original event, she remembers many Christmases of her youth when her mother would pull out the box and go through the items one by one.

Betty died in 1975; Stan followed in 1982. Somewhere in the 1970s, the 12 days of Christmas were boxed up and remained unseen until this month.

As she looks back 61 years, Watkins now has questions she hopes someone still in Portales might answer.

She knows that her dad arranged for each of these items to be delivered to her mother, but she suspects that even the delivery people might not have known what was in each package.

The one letter she still has is from the fourth day. It is typewritten and unsigned, but addressed to Bo Clark. It reads, “Dear Bo: Please deliver this package to Mrs. S.A. Hardin at 105 E. 17th Lane in Portales on December 17, 1956.”

Handwritten notes on the envelope indicate that the partridge and pear tree were delivered by Joe and Nelda Hayhurst, some Cub Scouts brought the golden rings, and Bill Seivert delivered the six geese towels.

Arranging this project was clearly no small task. Watkins would like to speak with anyone who may have participated.

“I didn’t picture my dad being romantic,” Watkins said, “but he was creative.”

Watkins wonders if sharing her story may trigger a memory from someone who knew her family back in the 1950s.

I hope it does. It would make a fine Christmas miracle.

Betty Williamson wants to hear the rest of the story. You may reach her at: [email protected]