Christmas Tapes: Recent Episodes
Penny Shelton
These recordings are Christmas greetings exchanged between my family (the Sheltons) in Thailand and our grandparents and aunt, uncle and cousins (the Phillips and the Walkies) in the United States starting in 1962. My parents were given a tape recorder by the Phillips and Walkies when they went to Thailand as Southern Baptist missionaries. These are the messages we sent back and forth to stay in touch. My husband recently received a reel-to-reel tape recorder in a barter exchange for an old suitcase, and I was able to listen to these for the first time with his help.
This recording was made on the morning of Christmas Day, 1962, by the Sheltons in Bangkok, Thailand. [Note: this is a new version of a previously uploaded file.]
This was the first Christmas that the Shelton family lived outside of Bangkok, in the town of Nakhonnayok.
1965 was the last year of the Shelton's first four-year term in Thailand. The following May they returned to the U.S. on furlough.
Audio recording of the Shelton family opening gifts on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
This recording features a wide array of "life on the mission field" at Christmas time. Highlights include Becky on the ukulele and lots of singing of carols.
This tape features Phillips family members talking about the heavy snow they received that year.
This was the Sheltons' first Christmas away from the States. Becky was nine, Penny was seven, Jana was five and Jim was three.
The Phillips and Walkies were relatives of the Sheltons. There's a lot of static right at the beginning of this recording, but it clears up very quickly.
Christmas, 1962, the first year my family was in Thailand as missionaries. It cost fifty cents to send the tape to Thailand via airmail.
When my husband got a reel-to-reel recorder recently, I remembered that I had four audio tapes that were given to me by my father many years ago. I hadn't had a way to hear the tapes, which sat untouched and nearly forgetting in a cedar chest for about 20 years or so.
I have been deeply moved and blessed to hear my grandparents, Ollie and Violet Phillips voices along with the GR Phillips family, the Walkies, and some of the Cummins family, on Christmas tapes made and sent to my family on four different Christmas holiday gatherings during our years in Thailand (1962-67). It's very precious to have these reel-to-reel tapes.
Christmas, 1967, the year after the Sheltons returned to Thailand for their second terms.