Holiday Memories: Waiting for a white Christmas

The year was 1950 in Grafton, Mass. All the day before Christmas, my father kept telling us, "No snow, no Santa." Well, the four of us prayed all day and just at dark, the snow came in full and so did Santa to our full delight.

Now, our father told us, he had a fun surprise for us that Christmas night. We tried to find out all day, but he would not tell us at all.

So when it started to get dark, everyone got dressed nice and warm and met him outside. Well, to our full delight, he marched us to the old outhouse, poured kerosene all over it and then set it aglow. We danced for a long time as we burned the outhouse down that Christmas night.

I was 11 then, now I am 57.