Christmas is the magic season in a child's life.  It is that way with my children now and it was that way on Scott McDonald Road when my brothers and I were kids in the ' 50s & ' 60s.  In the modern world of today, my three girls are pounded with television commercials, radio commercials, color mail advertisements, and yes, internet pop-ups since Halloween every year.  On the other hand, back in the day Ken ( RHS ' 68), Gary ( RHS ' 71), and I ( RHS ' 66) wore out the only mailer we ever got for Christmas, all other holidays, and to be uuite frank, every other day of the year, the Sears & Roebuck Catalog.  In fact, I do not even know when it showed up in our mailbox. I just remember that we always had one. Can anyone tell me the last time Sears & Roebuck made a catalog? The last time I owned a catalog was about fifteen years ago, maybe longer.  Furthermore, I had to go by the store and purchase it for one dollar.  The idea probably disgusted Mr. Roebuck so badly that he sold his half out.  After all, the company now is simply known as Sears.  However, giving credit to whom credit is due, a better wish book has never been printed.  Why my brothers and I could even tell you the page number that the Schwinn bicycles were on as well as the Daisy air rifle and the Lionel train set.  It was not until the innovation of modern day indoor plumbing that the Sears & Roebuck Catalog rose to the ranks of the most read book in America.  Prior to the commode, no one was ever able to complete the reading of the complete catalog. More Bibles were sold in the South but if the truth were known, it did not hold a candle as a daily reader when compared to the Sears & Roebuck Catalog.  If it were not in the Sears & Roebuck Catalog, then one did not need it.

 

December was by far the longest month of the year when I was a kid.  Why could it not be on the fifth?  Surely, Congress has changed the present calendar.  Has a month been taken out?  December 25th arrives too quickly now. All the Christmases with Daddy and Mama and my two brothers were special but a few stand out in my memory.  Yes, this time of year pulls special memories from my memory bank.  I have a withdrawal of those special childhood memories of growing up in Rockingham, North Carolina - a small textile town in the South in the ' 50s & ' 60s.

 

to be continued ...