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If a person does not believe the Christmas season is near, then they missed the Kiwanis Christmas Parade Saturday morning. I saw kids with smiles on their faces and parents as excited as their kids Christmas is a great holiday but don’t forget the real meaning of Christmas.

Remember the Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery /Ward catalogs? They were wish books that Rose Ann and me picked out what Santa was going to bring us. Sometimes we got presents and sometimes we didn’t.

Depends on whether we were naughty or nice.

Christmas Eve was one of the longest nights of the year. We always left food for Santa to eat knowing he a long journey that night. We left him hard candy and fruit, something my dad believed in. We could always tell that Christmas was near when we saw fruits and hard candy around.

My dad would take us to see the Christmas lights all over town so we would get sleepy and be ready for bed. We rode downtown to look at the multi- colored lights stretched across Main Street with the bulbs the size of baseballs and the big tree at the corner of Main Street and Market Streets.

We rose early on Christmas Day. Sometimes we awoke at 5 a.m. and ran into the living room, anxious to see what Santa had brought us. Christmas Day was a long day. We went that morning to Daddy Jim and Mama Bert’s home and stayed until after lunch. The Gerard’s had their Christmas that night at the Sloan’s (Mike and Lewis’s). Betty and Jane Alligood became my friends for the day and they didn’t get doll babies. They could shoot basketball with boys so that was fine with me. They could play football with the boys too.

Tracey has ordered more books that would be great Christmas gifts. I will sell to you if call me at 2527140307 or the WDN will contact me. I will be at the Cookie Express at the First Christian Church on December 16 signing books. Come see me.

They were the best of times with the best of friends and in the best of places, Washington, N.C. The Original Washington!