Christmas

What I remember most about Christmas when I was a kid. Walking from Virginia ave. in Ryal Side to down town Beverly.I remember it as always being cold. The five and ten is where I would always end up.Thats where all the kids went because of the lure of low prices and great smells.When you walked in the door the heat and aroma of freshly roasted peanuts and cashews was overwhelming. The store had it all from a snack bar to parakeets and goldfish! after buying about 10 presents for a grand total of about three dollars. Then we would squeeze out what little change we had left to buy a little bag of candy (Boston baked beans,little red hard coated balls of sugar and nuts) or go over to the Delight doughnut shop across the street from the bus terminal and YMCA to get a couple of day old do-nuts (honey-dipped hunks of goo).And then the long walk home. The money we had for presents, we earned by selling door to door little dollies and the like that Mrs.Thibedeau crouched. Every evening after all of her chores were done she would sit in her rocker and crochet. She did this all year and then in November she would dole out the fruits of her labor to us State kids. Doesn't that sound like some thing you would see in one of those sappy Hallmark Christmas movies . I know the bean counter thinks all he is going to get out of me is inane ranting, but this is just my first try.(sticking my toe in the water, so to speak)