Christmas time brings back a nostalgia that is harder to appreciate with some loss of hearing. I used to listen to American and European carols, but now I have to sit next to the boom box. I was a choir boy in elementary school, and Sister Edith had us sing beautiful carols I never knew before.
My Dad, though he earned a nice living, was as frugal as always. On Dec. 24 he brought home the Christmas tree ($3) and I learned how to cut off an imbalanced branch, bore a hole in the appropriate spot on the trunk, and reinsert it. After all, what did we have tools for?
It’s still a wonderful time of the year, and our cumulative past makes it richer.
Civilization 