What is under your tree?
When you were a little kid did you ever get candy cigarettes for Christmas? I did.
I was too young to remember or care who was president at the time but I think it may have been Eisenhower. It was back when smoking was still cool, back when the tobacco industry was in cahoots with the candy industry in efforts to lure small children into addictive habits.
Even though it was close to a hundred years ago I still vividly remember that Christmas and all the gifts I got. Most of the gifts, of course, were clothes. Growing boys can be such a burden to their parents because they grow so quickly that they are always needing new clothes. Wrap those clothes and the pile of presents under the tree can look formidable.
But it would be cruel to give a child nothing but clothes for Christmas. Luckily, I got some toys, too.
My favorite toy that year was a ViewMaster(TM). I could put my eyes up to that thing, pull the lever to turn the circular disk of images, and be transported to exotic distant lands or see rare wild animals. It helped open my mind to the world. I was a ViewMaster(TM) kid for many years and every Christmas I would get new circular disks of photos to luxuriate in. (Sometimes I wish I still had that thing.)
