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As the holiday season approaches, my mind wonders back to yesteryear in rural Bladen County….

Among the changes…never hear of ‘drawing names’ at church or school anymore. It worked like this…..all the names of students in the class would be place in a container, everyone pulled out a name and were expected to bring a gift, not to exceed some small amount of money….maybe 50 cents. It worked well, if all followed the rules….Not so good when someone failed to bring a gift…

A popular get-together church party for youngsters, included hop-scotch, tug-of-war or some other such games…..many times ended roasting hotdogs or marshmallows or both. Anyone remember?….Use a metal clothes hanger..straighten it out, or some small stick from the woods, just add the food item and hold it over an outdoor fire. Probably would not pass today’s standards and many food items were lost in the fire….or were badly burned, but not wasted. The way it was, long, long years ago.

A Dick Tracy cartoon strip helped us dream of days to come….like folks walking around with a telephone not attached to a telephone line, and other such far-fetched ideas.

The selection of a Christmas tree meant heading for the woods, many times the tree was located behind the outdoor toilet where the Sears or Montgomery Ward catalog was used for viewing and other useful purposes.

Sorry, just dreaming….but on a cold morning like this morning, little time was spent ‘flipping’ through the catalog.

‘Those were the days my friend, I thought they would never end,’ but they did…

Today, just a memory, thank goodness.

If you knew this would most likely be your last holiday season, what changes would you make? No answer needed…Just something to think about.

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time. Friedrich Nietzsche.

One lives in hope of becoming a memory. Antonio Porchia

God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December. J.M. Barrie