Christmas memories

John McPherson’s letter elegantly summed up one of my favorite memories when he described the Christmas goodies that appeared in the long socks. My siblings and I enjoyed the same scene at our home. Thanks, John, for the memories.

My Christmas memories are many. At my uncle’s general store I remember the aroma of apples and oranges in wooden crates, grapes, bananas on a stalk, fresh pineapples, several types of special Christmas candies that filled the air, especially when the store opened after the scents blended during the night.

Christmas 1946 stands apart. World War II was over. Joy was everywhere. The young military men of the community, some in uniform, came to the store during this holiday time and told us about war in far-away places with strange-sounding names.

Each year 10 days before Christmas I remember going with Dad or my uncle across the meadow and into the woods to find the cedar tree, usually one that had been sized up months earlier as being just right. I left the home nest in 1955 and we always had a cedar tree. Mom would retrieve the decorations that we used for many years, She’d place the same big red ball in the tree top. About all we bought each year were new icicles and sometimes new angel hair. Are these items still around?

Mom always fixed a no-bake fruitcake, and sometimes a hickory nut cake. Dad prepared a fresh ham from a hog-killing a few days before the winter holiday season. It was labor-intensive as Dad prepared a very large ham using flour and adding mustard and sorghum for a paste to coat the ham. Mom baked the coated meat eight to 10 hours in the wood-burning stove in the kitchen.

Back to nuts. This year I can’t find Brazil nuts. I ask why. I’m proud the days are long gone when Brazil nuts were too often described using two words with a racist tone.

For those who experienced these things, life’s evening sun is sinking low. WILLIAM C. KRAMER

North Little Rock