Christmas Poetry

To Blanche
        from Elmer
                with Love

A lifetime of Elmer Riggins'
Christmas poems from long ago

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Background

Gram and Grandpa departed this earth in November and December 1970 respectively. They were never very far apart in any way. Their monument in Locustwood Memorial Park tells it all: "TOGETHER FOREVER." The love they felt for each other and for their family has been transmitted through successive generations and is alive today. Now I'm a grandpa myself. Gram and Grandpa are especially close at Christmas time and would like to share their love with you.

Blanche Moeller (born Blanche Pentlarge) and Elmer Riggins were born in the Philadelphia area in 1892 and 1890 respectively. Hard working people, they met, married, and lived simply and comfortably in Philadelphia until they moved to the suburb of Oaklyn, New Jersey in 1925. They raised two children, George and Dorothy. George served as a Navy Officer in the Pacific theater during World War II, married late and had no children. Dorothy married Daniel Rathgeber and enjoyed two sons, David and Douglas, 5 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren during her lifetime.

A pioneering woman, Blanche worked full-time for several years in the 1930's and 1940's. She also spent a good deal of time in her kitchen, with great success. She made the best spaghetti sauce ever. Elmer worked for decades as treasurer of Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company headquartered in Philadelphia, but was retired at age 60. Not the retiring sort, he went out and found a job as controller of Hugh Nelson Carpet Mill where he worked for another 20 years. He had an infectious love of salt-water fishing which was transmitted genetically to at least 4 generations of his offspring.

A technically curious young man, Elmer became interested in bicycles and photography which were the latest and greatest new things in the early 1900s. He became an accomplished bicycle mechanic, and also installed a dark room in his basement where he developed his own black and white photos. An amateur inventor, he developed a mechanism driven by a windup alarm clock that operated the damper system on his coal furnace, so that the home would be warmed up when he got out of bed in the morning.

Nearly every year, beginning in 1928, Grandpa wrote a Christmas poem to Grandma. These poems were invariably written on a greeting card and presented on Christmas day with a gift. The last poem was that of 1969, the final Christmas for either of them. In addition to the ubiquitous theme of Christmas spirit and love, the poems refer to various historic as well as family events which had made the previous year memorable.

Having experienced the Great Depression, money was of significance and became a minor but ever-present part of the Christmas gift. The money part of the gift grew over the years, from a $5 gift referenced in 1934 to $1,000 or more in the 1960's. How many different ways can one refer to money in a lifetime of poems? A fiver, dough, long green, a note, a couple of C's, a little roll, a check, treasure, hard cash, old paper, a token. Can you find others? Another recurring thread throughout the years is the family's nautical mindset.

Notations in italics will provide background and insight into the times, lives, and love of Blanche and Elmer.

David Rathgeber (grandson)

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