I remember that :)

*smiles... friends that are gone are never really gone...

Vix

Thank you for sharing the memory. Your pugboo goodness is always appreciated this time of year. It comes alive with the holiday magic.

*smiles and gives them all a hug... and it is magic...

Vix

Hugs

What a cute portal to a joyful time. I would almost see yiu sliding into the tree to snag a train XD

and I so wanted one... years later I finally got one...

Vix

Damn...does that bring back memories. I need to go digging back into old photos...I have them...if I can find them.

*laughs... me too... boxes and boxes - trouble is some that I want I can't find.

Vix

Sounds like many years of good times and fun, thank you for sharing.

Now I'm a touch curious to know what twelve year old you and current you were thinking about trying to buy wine at that age...

*laughs... I had no idea of laws and such. I simply went to the 'wine store' pointed at a bottle I could afford, and asked the fellow for one.

Vix

Thanks for this one, Vix.

I also grew up in a small (not the smallest) industrial Pennsylvania city. Recently, somebody here posted a photo of a street paved with bricks and that instantly took me back home, where brick roads were common in those days.

Your own story reminded me of the G. C. Murphy's in our downtown. The toy department had a small shelf that jutted out from the display counter. While my mom shopped for whatever it is that moms purchase, that shelf magically became a road for the cheap toy cars sold there.

Santa didn't have a seat in Murphy's or in W. T. Grant's. But at the other end of town, in the parking lot of the A&P supermarket, a small shed, painted red and white, was erected. That was where Santa held court. every December.

Merry Christmas to you, Dear Fox.

Now that is a cool memory Ursus. We had an A&P too... PLUS... where my house was had also been a part of the brick factory. We had lots and lots of brick roads. There was a pit behind the house where there was a small raised area in the middle where they got their mud. I always assumed the raised area was for a steam-shovel. Down the road directly in front of the house was the remains of the brick works house. I always thought it was just an old farm house, but found a city map online from the 1800's and it plainly shows it.

Vix

Nice story

Thank you Werty... *hugs...

Vix

I'm also from a small town in PA that was built around steel mills, and my grandfather owned one of the small mills in the area (they helped build one of the Apollo shuttles but my mother can't remember which one).

This story definitely made me feel nostalgic for home and all of the oddities only a small town can offer. It's funny when you come from a town of 10-12k people, but there is so much happening, and so many things you can claim your small town has to offer that somehow the big busy major cities can't.

When I was in the Coast Guard, I was hitchhiking home and was picked up by a fellow driving a huge Cadillac. He turned out to be the president of Pittsburgh Bessemer Iron and Steel. When I was a kid, one of my father's best friends was the CEO of McGuinness Steel. They had the largest forge in the country and lathes the size of trucks. They were making parts for nuclear reactors.

That's all gone now. The only constant in life is change.

Vix

Why is everybody I meet from Pennsylvania?

*laughs... we all come from somewhere...

Vix

It's a very big state!

It's not that big.

I didn't grow up in a small town, but I do remember the local 5 & dime store. Being small and finding a toy I wanted there. I think it was a dinosaur of some kind.

I remember the magic of Christmas, the anticipation and the joy that just seemed to float around in the air. Colored lights on the tree that slowly blinked were mesmerizing. Decorating that tree was both a pleasure and a pain. Have you ever tried to put loose strands of tinsel BACK in a cellophane bag? It's hard.

By the time I was 16, all that was gone. I didn't really mourn it. It felt like the price for 'growing up.'

Now it's a holiday, a day off work with pay. Sometimes I recall my childhood excitement and wonder when I stopped feeling wonder.

Ignorance truly is bliss.




But..... why are all these stupid people around me always angry?

*shrugs and hugs*

*gives his friend a warm hug...

Anger, my dear Wirewolf, is a disease you catch from other people. Unknowingly it becomes rooted in your being because it is addictive.

To you I wish a Merry Christmas... now go have a nice cup of coco... or tea. Your choice.

Vix

Good story.

thanks much Walt... sorry for getting the prompt out late; lost track of the days...

Vix

No sweat. I've already written one, so today's a twofer.

*laughs... I am so envious of your speed.

Vix

The story that starts tomorrow has taken me years just to get off the ground, and writing it has been like pulling my own teeth.

You can go home again, if only in your memories.
We both experienced a similar childhood:
First purchases of gifts for mom and dad at the five and dime. I also had a bazaar our grade school held Xmas and Easter time, where they sold trinkets cheaply for the children to buy and give to their family members and friends.
I had dad take me to the liquor store to buy my favorite uncle his bottle of Xmas whiskey with a fair portion of the price from my allowance. Buying whiskey and cigarettes for older relatives (with adult assistance) was well within the norm of those days.
A good nostalgia filter brings the most pleasant memories forward while sending the not so nice ones into the shadows.
One such pleasant memory was the annual setup of my brother's American Flyer trains and my HO trains on the ping pong table for a a few precious weeks -- staying up just long enough to be remain interesting, and then put away with anticipation for the next year.
Eventually the trains were left in their boxes, but they still run their circuits in my mind.

Another legacy, as long as the Internet lasts.
I'm glad they developed a safe emulator for flash files. It gives a second life to imagery otherwise lost.

* gives a big hug.. yes, things used to be so different.

Vix

"When I was a child, my parents did not wrap and label our Christmas presents."

This was a bone of contention between myself and my sister-in-law, I said presents should be wrapped, she said it was much more fun for the children to come downstairs and find them all just sitting there, I said unwrapping was half the fun, and so on.

Well years later my nephew said I was right, Christmas presents should be wrapped! ;)

Nice reminices V!