Want a glimpse of Christmas past? Peek into a long-ago diary

Ever wonder what Christmas was really like for your ancestors?

When they're not around to ask, a peek at what they wrote at the time is the next best thing.

In 2018, the Washington County Historical Society received several diaries of longtime resident Carrie Hawbecker Lowman from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Carrie’s grandson, Dr. Paul Lowman Jr. (1931-2011), had become one of NASA’s first geologists in 1959. His work directly supported the Apollo program.

After his death, his papers passed to the Goddard archives, including his grandmother’s five diaries, which Goddard eventually returned to Washington County.

Carrie Hawbecker Lowman was a Washington County resident from the 1930s to the 1960s. Within the pages of the five daily diaries are her Christmastime memories. Each diary acted as a planner and almanac in which Carrie recorded each day’s events for an entire year.

Carrie’s diaries record an intimate network of neighbors and friends in her small pocket of Washington County —names that appear repeatedly in her diaries as those who dropped by to socialize throughout the day to exchange last minute ingredients and homemade gifts during the holidays again and again across the years.

Carrie Hawbecker was born on July 8, 1876, in Williamson, Pa., to Samuel and Mary Hawbecker. In 1896, aged 20, Carrie was appointed a U.S. postmistress for Williamson. Six years later, she married Howard D. Lowman, and the two had a son, Paul, in 1904.

Howard worked as a station agent with the Pennsylvania Railroad, a job he held until the couple moved to Washington County in the 1930s.

The Lowmans lived along Maugansville Road, north of Hagerstown. Within several years, they formed close relationships with their neighbors and friends — connections illuminated by the holidays.

On Dec. 23, 1939, for example, Carrie, now 63, baked sugar cookies and wrapped gifts for her son and grandchildren in Rahway, N.J. That evening her neighbor, Clyde Morningstar, drove her and Howard to Hagerstown’s station to catch a train to New Jersey.

Before leaving, the Lowmans asked Morningstar to tend their home’s furnace during their absence. Clyde kept his promise. When the Lowmans returned, Carrie found “the house as warm as toast.” She had even brought back a jardinière, or flower planter, from New York for the Morningstars.

By Christmas 1941, the U.S. had entered World War 2 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. “Heard on air that war is declared,” Carrie had written on Dec. 7.

But not much seemed to change that Christmas for Carrie. She baked “filled cookies,” tied Christmas packages, went to town with Howard and exchanged gifts. A Mrs. Lowry brought Carrie a book and a hooked rug, and Carrie, in return, wrote, “Gave Mrs. L. her Christmas pkg–aprons, gown, tea towel & diary.”

Once again that year, Clyde Morningstar drove the Lowmans to the train station. By 5 a.m. on Dec. 25 — after missing a train in Trenton, N.J. — Carrie and Howard reached their son.

Their grandchildren woke them less than three hours later that Christmas morning by jumping on their bed.

Carrie kept busy leading up to Christmas of 1943. She baked gingerbread, lemon custard, and icebox and oatmeal cookies. “Howard took them out of pans,” she noted.

She cooked pigs’ feet, made applesauce and stewed the last pears, then purchased candied fruit for her fruit cake before mailing 15 Christmas cards and three packages.

The Lowmans stayed home that Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Carrie baked a coconut cake ("Howard grated the coconut,” she wrote). Mrs. Lowry brought Carrie a broom, a dozen eggs, an embroidered pillow and a letter box.

Jean, the 18-year-old daughter of Clyde and Orpha Morningstar, stopped by for parsley, leaving Carrie some Lucky Strike cigarettes.

After hanging window wreaths, Carrie and Howard went with their neighbors, Bob and Bettie Hyssong, to a candlelight service, returning home by 1 a.m. The Lowmans slept in on Christmas Day until 10 a.m. Carrie’s chicken “didn’t get done,” so the couple had sausage instead, with cereal and cake in the evening. “Very quiet XMas,” she wrote.

But if Christmas had been quiet, New Year’s Eve was not.

Carrie and Howard headed to the Hyssongs’ party of 17. “Had a grand time,” Carrie recalled. “At midnight we blew horns & whistles, then had refreshments.” They reached home by 1 a.m., then stayed up until 3 a.m. listening to a New Year's celebration in California on their radio.

Howard passed away in 1948. Carrie, age 72, lived alone after that.

But she was not really alone — the Morningstars, now in their 60s, visited nearly every day, along with Carrie’s neighbors and friends of all ages.

In 1953, her friends Helen and Bob purchased Carrie a Christmas wreath at the market “for Howard’s grave.”

Carrie Lowman passed away on July 11, 1966, age 90. But her diaries are precious glimpses into Christmases of Washington County’s past.

Abigail Koontz is the curator for the Washington County Historical Society's collections.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Baking, Christmas cards, neighbors filled holidays in times past