Ephrata Means Bethlehem

Grant County Journal
December 13, 2010
Ephrata means Bethlehem
Written by Janet Warren
Roberta Gibson gave me a call recently. She wanted to let me know that “Ephrata” means Bethlehem. She’s right. On the City’s website I learned this: “The first official name, recorded by the Great Northern Railroad in 1892, was ‘Station 11,’an unglamorous name for the water stop near Beezley Springs. Local legend has it that a worker on the rail line found that the orchards and the landscape were similar to the Holy Land and christened the area ‘Ephrata’… an older name for Bethlehem.” I didn’t know that. Here are some other things I didn’t know:
Bruce Reim is the Mayor Pro-Tem. That means if the mayor is absent, Bruce gets to rap the gavel at the City Council meeting. During the 1950’s, Bruce lived in Spokane where almost all of his extended family lived. His grandparents were the hub of their family and every Christmas Eve the entire family showed up at their house. They sang carols and munched on traditional goodies. Eggnog flowed like water for the children. Several members of the family played various instruments, so their family songfest was accompanied not only by a piano but also violins and a flute or two. Children sang solos, and skits were performed. Grandpa would then read the story of Christ’s birth from the Bible and then it was off to bed for the children. Bruce remembers waking during the night to the sound of the adults still singing and playing violins.
Stephanie Knitter is the newest member of City Council. She, her husband Keith and daughter Kaitlyn moved to Ephrata 16 years ago after a 4-year stint in California. Stephanie hosted an exchange student from Norway several years ago. She introduced the family to a type of porridge eaten on Christmas Eve after attending candlelight services. In one of the bowls an almond is hidden. The person who finds the almond gets a special gift. (I’ve also heard that the person who finds the almond has luck the whole next year. Yet another reason to find the almond this year, Stephanie).
Stephanie grew up in Florida . She and her siblings were allowed to open one small gift on Christmas Eve, which always happened to be pajamas. Stephanie thinks her mom did this so the pictures on Christmas morning would look nice. Her family still opens gifts on Christmas morning, just as she did as a kid. (As a side note, I did the pajama gift on Christmas Eve too, and that is the only tradition my two daughters continued in their own families. There is something really nice about a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve).
Ben Davis has been on the City Council for 7 years. He has lived in Ephrata since age 11, except for his college years. He married Roberta (Nickel), a lifelong Ephrata resident, 42 years ago. Ben remembers selling fresh-cut Christmas trees in Ephrata. He and his brother, Don, cut about 100 trees in Pend Orielle County and their father transported them to Ephrata. They stopped cutting trees when they were in their mid-teens, yet people called for years after hoping they could buy one of their wild, fresh trees.
Almost all of Ben’s immediate family lives in or close to Ephrata, which enables them to spend time together during all of the major holidays. One family tradition that Roberta and Ben have continued through generations is the making of the Davis Crab Cocktail at Christmas. The concoction has many ingredients, but the most important one is a large quantity of fresh Dungeness crab. They watch the ads very closely just before Christmas, but have frozen ones on hand just in case they are not available. (I was at Safeway on Wednesday and they had the crabs, buy one get one free!).
Wes Crago isn’t on the City Council, but he is the City Administrator and presents the city business at the council meetings. He tells me Christmas is a big deal in the Crago home. The tree must go up on the Friday following Thanksgiving, pre-empted only if skiing conditions are too good to ignore. The tree is decorated with an eclectic mix of horse, princess, and history ornaments. He and his daughter Christa put up the lights. His wife, Vangie, and Christa make Wes’s favorite Christmas cookie—frosted sugar cookies which he describes as “boring perhaps, yet pure.” Wes’s church celebrates the season with a weekly advent event, culminating in a Christmas Eve candlelight service which is a big highlight for them. Many evenings during Christmas will find the Cragos watching movies together or listening to jazz/blues Christmas music in front of the fire.
Kathleen Allstot and her husband Rick, along with their children, moved to Ephrata in 1987. Kathleen has been the teacher-librarian at Ephrata High School since 1990. Rick and Kathleen spent the first three Christmases of their marriage in Poland teaching English as a second language. Each year they celebrated Vigilia, or Christmas Eve with local families. A Polish tradition is to buy a large, fresh fish (usually carp) from the fishmonger’s shop, take it home and keep it alive in the bathtub until December 24th, and then bake it as the centerpiece of a multi-course holiday dinner! Kathleen said, “While we enjoyed many of the courses, such as borsht or wild mushroom soup or poppyseed cakes, we never did develop a love of carp.”
One Christmas Eve, Kathleen and Rick walked home after attending the midnight service at one of the few Protestant chapels in old town Olsztyn. “It was dark, snow was falling, and the air was crisp. As we approached a guardhouse outside the gate of a military base near the university, a young Polish soldier wearing a greatcoat and carrying his rifle asked us what time it was. We answered him (in Polish, of course), agreed that it was cold that night, and exchanged holiday greetings before parting. The best part was realizing that the poor young Communist soldier was guarding his base and his country against non-Communists such as ourselves. We have always remembered that incident because all three of us were simply young people away from home on Christmas, not enemies, but just God’s children from different countries.”
Did you notice that the traditions in last week’s column, as well as this one focus on people? They are about remembering family and connecting to our loved ones. They are about making Christmas special for others. Two of them were about connecting with strangers. They are about music and peaceful feelings. My best Christmas when I was a child was the one where my Christmas gift was to fly to Reno with my parents to look for a place to live. It was one of the first times I had spent one-on-one time with my folks. Please spend time with the people you love this Christmas. Those moments are memory makers.