BY DR. GLENN MOLLETTE

Christmas once started for me when the JC Penny and Sears catalogs came in the mail. They came early in the Fall and I wore them out looking at the toy section. By December, the catalogs were in shambles.

My mother used to order clothes and other stuff from those catalogs. I don’t remember her ever ordering toys. They usually came from the Five-and-Dime store in our town of Inez or G.C. Murphy’s store in Paintsville. Yet, the catalogs were fun and gave me ideas of the latest items for which to wish and hope.

I think my mother would enjoy the internet today. She could order online like many of us are doing. Having internet in the country is like having an updated Christmas catalog every day. There is always a means to shop and order. Back in that day, ordering was tedious and arrival took weeks. Shipping back a dress that didn’t fit was a long ordeal.

As a child, there was always much more that I saw, dreamed of and wished for than I ever received. Some Christmases were lean and others were more abundant. Life is like that most of the time. We have hopes and wishes that never come true and some that do. It’s nice when one or two come true.