Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson for November 29, 2021

Don’t forget mittens! Thankfully, our grandparents, one aunt and uncle, and church family always gave us something fun or special.

Toys were optional back then ?

It wasn’t Christmas if we didn’t get underwear.

You need to get that stuff when you need to get that stuff. Christmas is for something special. Some think it’s special to have lots under the tree, even if half is sox & undies.

She remembers the Ice Age…

Underwear for Christmas is an appropriate gift only for those on Santa’s naughty list.

The explanation from our parents was that Santa sometimes didn’t give us what we wanted but rather what we NEEDED to replace our threadbare clothing essentials. But it didn’t go very far in taking the sting out of opening those brightly wrapped NON-presents.

She’s not liking the way you’re thinking.

This reminds me of an episode of “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, where Rob had come into some money somehow and said he didn’t want it to be “underwear money”, relating that as a kid if he got money at Christmas or his birthday, his parents made sure it was used to buy underwear. Adult Rob wanted to use it for something fun!

We were always threatened with “Socks and Underwear for Christmas”. Now we give each other socks for Christmas. My grandma would knit mittens for us and mom would put them and hats in the garage in a big box. She put a laundry basket with the box. We would be outside playing and when the mittens got wet we would dump them in the basket and pull on a clean dry pair. Neighborhood kids playing with us used the box of mittens, discarding theirs in the basket. Every spring the kids would come and pick their mittens out of the line up and take them home. Left over mittens were kept for the box the next year.