Merry, Nostalgic Christmas!

I saw this Don Feder column last night and could identify with it, as can anyone who grew up in the 1960s.. It's called "Christmas Eve on West Main St. in Johnstown N.Y., Circa 1962", and you'll enjoy it.

Here's an excerpt: "The decorations, the snow, the music – I loved it all.  To me, Christmas Eve on West Main Street, circa 1962, represents normalcy.

"This was an America where men still wore hats they tipped to ladies, where cops were respected and obeyed, where cars had huge tailfins and gas was 25-cents a gallon, where television sitcoms were hilarious and wholesome, where an army of busy bureaucrats didn’t try to regulate every breath you took, where schools taught manners as well as academic subjects. It was a land where love of country was celebrated and religion was honored.

"It was an America where you knew everyone on your block, not just the family next-door. It was an America before hippies and urban riots, free love and R-rated movies, non-stop protests and manufactured rage. It was an America where ideas were freely exchanged on college campuses. This was an America where the grandson of immigrants --- the son of a man who grew up in a tenement and left school in the 8^th. grade – could dream of one day becoming a writer.

"Back in the day (my day) Christmas was magic – so enchanting that even some who didn’t celebrate it were touched by it."

One of the commenters wrote,  "As a little Jewish girl I learned every Christmas Carol and can still sing them today. I learned everyone of them in school."  So did I!