Way Back When-sday

It's getting to be that time of the year again. Walmart and Kmart have had their decorations up here since before Halloween. I swear it used to be Thanksgiving before this would start ... maybe I just have kid memories wherein I focused on one holiday at a time and didn't notice all the encroaching trappings of the other holidays.

• Halloween meant costumes and pillowcases full of candy.

• Thanksgiving meant being out of school, going squirrel hunting with Granddaddy, eating turkey, dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes and Mammy's gravy with sliced boiled eggs.

• Christmas meant every happy thing you could think of -- including no school -- rolled into one old big ball and bounced from one set of grandparents' house to the next set's house. It meant trying to fall asleep so Santa would come. It meant hearing Pops ring his jingle bells and pretend he was Santa leaving the house. It meant Mama in her housecoat smiling as she watched us all tear through our things to find the next surprise.

There was no need to rush to get from one holiday to the other since each had its special things that went with it.

Anyway, enough daydreaming .... the picture this Wednesday is of my very first Christmas tree. How do I know that? Because Mama and Daddy did a great job of writing on the backs of the many photos they took of us growing up. That's something many of us in this digital age are going to miss out on. I can go back through all these photos and see their handwriting, their little marks, etc. It's a special treasure our family is lucky to have. I hope some of you have the same treasure from your parents or are creating a photo treasure for your own children.