The Oysterville boys pictured here were a bit older than the “culprit” in Aunt Dora’s Christmas story and, as far as is known, were not members of the Espy family so were not present at that well-remembered dinner.

As told by Aunt Dora:I believe the events in “the roast story” occurred during my mother’s childhood, perhaps before she was born, but during that generation.

The various Espy siblings and their children had gathered in Oysterville at the R.H. Espy House (the “family seat”) for Christmas dinner. The women were busy in the kitchen with last-minute touches and beginning to carry the laden serving dishes to the dining room table. Someone took the roast out of the oven, “done to a turn,” said Aunt Dora, and finding no counter space available at the moment, set down the roasting pan, roast and all, on the kitchen floor.

Pull Quote

‘Everyone remarked on that being the best piece of beef they’d ever eaten!’

“One of the little boys — I don’t remember which — but a youngster about two or three years old, dashed into the kitchen just then,” Aunt Dora went on. “For some unknown reason, he pulled down his Christmas britches and tinkled right on that gorgeous roast! We women all looked at one another in horror and then did the only sensible thing. We pulled up the culprit’s rompers, sent him on his way, and transferred that beautiful roast to the serving platter!”

At that point in the story, Aunt Dora would interrupt herself with her contagious chuckle and (every time we heard it) we asked, “And what did you do with the roast?”

“Ate it for dinner of course,” she laughed. “It was, after all, the main dish and ‘a culinary masterpiece.’ Everyone said so! In fact, for years (at least until the story came out) everyone remarked on that being the best piece of beef they’d ever eaten!”

And we all laughed along with her, all the while looking at our uncles and cousins and wondering which of them that little boy had been.