Priceless memories

My baby boomer status comes with wonderful December memories. When I was little, my mother would dress us all up in our Sunday best, drive us to Richmond and take us to Miller and Rhoads to have lunch with the “real” Santa. My memory is vivid: the decorations, the music, the sparkle of it all. The only cost to my mother was gas for the station wagon, lunch and the excited chatter of my brothers and me bundled up in the back seat. We went for the experience, and we left with a candy cane in each hand from the “real” Santa. Priceless.

Miller and Rhoads was long gone by the time I became a mother, so my husband and I would bundle up our children and take them to Coleman’s Nursery or to the farmers market in search of the real Santa. Mainly, I wanted them to experience the same wonderful excitement that I felt as a child, experiences that delighted the senses, warm memories that would last all the way through senior citizenship.

As an older adult, I appreciated the holiday spirit expressed at the nowclosed Norfolk Nordstrom: the decorations, the sparkle, the music being played on the grand piano and the delicious lunches in the café. It was something my grown daughters and I looked forward to year after year.

So in this season of cyber everything, I hope you will take the time to create memories outside of online shopping. My guess is that years from now you will not be telling stories of pushing those computer keys, or changing your password a hundred times, or scrolling through tons of stores while sitting on the couch in your comfy pants.

Julie Scherrer, Chesapeake