This little exercise helps if you had an older brother. One good reason – he’d come up with the most ingenious ideas that a younger sister would never even voice. Better yet, he would get get the blame. In fact, my brother is the only person I know of who actually GOT COAL in his stocking one Christmas. What better Christmas can one have! Like the time “X” (there’s no way I’ll spill the beans) had to show me something. As soon as Mom was safely down the street, he pulls me into a bedroom that had the little hole in the closet ceiling that leads into the attic. He pops up the square insert and feels around the attic floor a bit. Down comes a small package addressed to neither of us. He shakes it. We can’t guess so up it goes and he feels around a bit more. After repeating this a couple more times, he gets impatient and pulls himself closer to the hole and feels around again. He found the Christmas popcorn balls. What a find! (Parents loved these because they usually helped fill the stocking, especially in the leaner years). We ate either one or one apiece, I can’t remember. I do remember Mom asking Dad several days later where he put the treats for the stockings. Did “X” eat the rest while I wasn’t there?

My brother was really good at ferreting such important info out. I remember a few years later when he got his comeuppance, though. When it was safe, he had to show me the new hideout for Christmas. As usual, he pulls out a present and read the label. He put it down and pulled out another gift. I could tell he wasn’t happy and it wasn’t just his scowl. “What’s wrong?” I asked. There were no names on the gifts, only numbers-the game was up!