Goodrich – In her 84 years, Jeanette Pierson has seen seasons of changes.
Born in 1920, she grew up Jeanette Zimmerman on a Thayer Road farm in Ortonville, at the edge of the Goodrich School District boundaries.
It was a time when school budgets were small, when school officials didn’t have to worry much about liability, nor religious differences.
In those days’when not all high schools went to the 12th grade’older boys and male teachers in need of extra cash were recruited as bus drivers, even when heavy snow made the roads nearly impassable.
‘We did have a lot more snow, it seems like, and it stayed longer,? says Jeanette, who doesn’t remember school ever being cancelled due to weather.
Counting on neighbors was a given.
After one Thanksgiving snowstorm, neighbor Harold Auten used his tractor to rescue the Zimmerman family, who was stuck on Horton Road driving home from a family get-together.
After Thanksgiving, the school was decorated for Christmas. Despite the financial struggles of the Great Depression, each classroom had its own Christmas tree, said Jeanette.
The school’s Christmas program always seemed to kick off the season, with recitations and a host of Christmas carols, both fanciful and religious.
‘We sang ‘Silent Night?, ‘Joy to the World?, ‘Away in a Manger?, and ‘Up on the Housetop?,? she said.
Christmas program clothes weren’t necessarily lavish, recalls Jeanette.
‘Some dressed up, but you know we had a Depression, and kids wore what they had,? she said.
‘Some of ’em didn’t have dress-up clothes. I don’t think we were concerned that much in those days about what we wore.?
A church Christmas program was another seasonal tradition for which a youngster zealously memorized his or her Christmas piece.
Jeanette was about 4 or 5 when she rehearsed for one memorable program, she recalls.
Her mother sewed a lovely dress for her to wear in the special service, complete with matching bloomers. Onto one bloomer leg there was even a specially-stitched hanky pocket.
Before the program, Jeanette came down with a cold.
‘Remember to blow your nose,? her mother reminded her.
In front of the church congregation, it was little Jeanette’s turn to speak.
‘I thought, ‘Oh, Mom said to blow my nose,? so I blew my nose and spoke my piece,? she said, recalling her infamous reach for the hanky.
‘Everyone laughed out loud, my dad most of all. He had kind of a high-pitched laugh. I heard about it for years,? she said.
With freezing winter temperatures the norm, Jeanette’s father and a neighbor went to a nearby lake to cut blocks of ice each year.
The blocks were stored in an ice-house, larger than a garden shed, between layers of sawdust. Jeanette was never allowed to go near the ice-house in the summer while barefoot, because of the dangerous ice tongs.
While her father was gone, she worried.
‘There was always a tale about one team and sleigh that went through the ice,? said Jeanette. ‘I was so relieved when Dad was done with the job.?
While the Zimmerman family was cutting ice, so was her future husband’s family. The Piersons cut ice not only for their own household, but for the local hospital, then located on Hegel Road in downtown Goodrich.
Although Jeanette recalls her father ‘always had a Chevrolet?, he frequently counted on the team of horses to pull the sleigh in the winter.
When she was 6 or 7 and the roads were heavily blanketed in snow, the bus ran only on M-15. To get Jeanette to the bus, her father drove her in the sleigh, she says.
As Jeanette grew older, the sleigh became the focus of teenage Christmas parties.
Nearly the whole high school was invited to parties, said Jeanette, recalling her father picking up friends for a sleigh ride to their home, where her mom would serve cocoa, and kids would toast marshmallows around a bonfire.
One family, whose home was situated near a steep hill, frequently hosted sledding parties.
Winter break’then known by the name Jeanette prefers, Christmas vacation’is filled with snowy memories.
Jeanette’s family planted an 80-acre grove of pines to supply the family’and sometimes the families of hired hands too’with Christmas trees.
When it was nearly time to get the tree, the youngsters strung popcorn and cranberries, and cut out paper chains.
Shortly before Christmas, the family put on coats, along with heavy mittens and scarves made by their grandmother before driving to the stand of pines.
When the snow was deep, they hiked far in to cut down their tree and drag it out.
Back home, they shed their snow-soaked togs to dress up the tree with large-bulb electric lights, as well as glass Christmas tree bulbs.
Foil icicles caused mothers grief back then too.
While the kids tried tossing icicle clumps on the branches, Jeanette’s mother prompted them to drape on individual strands.
Later, the family bought bubble lights, later, blinking lights came into fashion.
‘And that drove me crazy,? Jeanette said.
Soon after the tree was decorated, gifts were placed beneath its boughs for the little ones to shake and wonder about until the big day arrived.
On Christmas Eve, the children hung up her father’s ‘monkey sock? stockings, in hopes of getting a small game, an orange, and some old-fashioned hard candy on Christmas morning.
It wasn’t until after a special Christmas dinner with her grandparents that they opened presents.
Each child was given about three presents, says Jeanette.
‘We would receive a couple toys maybe, and books, or dolls my mother bought at the store.?
New Year’s Eve was often spent in a service at the Ortonville Methodist-Episcopal church the family attended.
Aside from church and parties, winters were spent mostly with family.
While riding their ponies together was a favorite summer pastime for Jeanette and a neighbor friend, the two-mile jaunt was too icy in winter.
She and her younger sisters, Joyce and JoAnn bundled up in heavy wool coats and snow pants to build snow forts, fling snowballs, make snowmen, ice skate and find other fun.
‘We used to take icicles off the eaves and suck on ’em,? she said. ‘It’s a wonder we lived through all that stuff.?
Jeanette and her late husband Doug met while attending Goodrich High School, now Reid Elementary.
Doug Pierson was a direct descendant of Delos and Philena Pierson, who settled in Atlas Township in 1891. Doug’s grandfather, Sumner Pierson, was Delos? oldest son, and the father of Ephraim Pierson, Jeanette’s father-in-law.
Ephraim, also known as E.J., had two sisters, Bessie Pierson Enders, and Mae Pierson Sigler, who was adopted from the orphan train that traveled from New York. E.J. married Nina Robertson. They had four children: Carlton, Edward, Douglas, and Leah.
After high school, Jeanette and Doug married and raised their children Rod, now 62, Linda, 59, and Janet, 51, in the Goodrich area, passing along the family’s Christmas traditions.
Jeanette now has 15 great-grandchildren. Most live nearby, she says.
When her own children were small, Jeanette recalls hiding the children’s Christmas presents in the trunk of the car to thwart curiosity. The plan backfired that year when the trunk froze shut.
As the family grew, holiday celebrations were often held at the old Pierson home across from Reid Elementary on Seneca Street. One of those Christmas traditions stands out in Jeanette’s mind.
Each year, Doug’s grandmother obtained a stack of crisp $1 bills in festive holiday envelopes from the bank, writing the name of each family member on an envelope to use as a place card.
‘The kids would look forward to that more than anything,? said Jeanette with a smile.