Christmas, as a remembrance of the birth of Jesus Christ may never change, but the times we live and celebrate in do.

The prism of the past may be cloudy for some who lived in Wrangell in the early 20th century, but for others, not so dim.

In December of 1944, it was a time before television. Franklin D. Roosevelt had just been re-elected for a fourth term, and Wrangell native Willie Eyon can clearly tell you about what happened on Front Street as the holidays came to the island.

One of Eyon’s most memorable recollections, he said, was of how the students at the different schools in Wrangell w...