Christmas 1941 - Merry Christmas!

My first Christmas

December 1941

Bakersfield, California
Then I moved to Bellflower, Long Beach, Oakdale, San Francisco,
and on to other places.

The tray on the stroller had a string of beads

and there were round holes in the metal that I played with.

One of my earliest memories.

Click on these photos to enlarge.

My father's mother,

Grandma Newman and me.

She came out to see me from Minnesota.

Wish I could remember her.

I grew up in a time

when it was a good thing, a desired thing

to wish people

Merry Christmas.

The greeting meant that we wished people

the joy of the season

with their friends and family.

Things are way too complicated now-a-days.

And "Happy Holidays" just sounds empty

if not altogether wrong.

So...

Meaning no offense to anyone

I'm wishing you a very

Merry Christmas

and

A Happy New Year!

I plead age.

I'm too old and have no inclination or desire to change.

December Quotes

My Favorite Quotations On Giving

~~~

8 - For somehow, not only at Christmas, but all the long year through,

The joy that you give to others is the joy

that comes back to you.

~ John Greenleaf Whittier

7 - Whatever you think the world is withholding from you,

you are withholding from the world.

Whatever you think people are withholding from you

-- praise, appreciation, assistance, loving care, and so on

-- give it to them.

You cannot receive what you don't give.

Outflow determines inflow.

~ Eckhart Tolle

6 - The most satisfying thing in life

is to have been able to give a large part of oneself to others.

~ Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

5 - What we gave, we have;

What we spent we had;

What we left, we lost.

~ Tyron Edwards

4 - We make a living by what we get.

we make a life by what we give.

Sir Winston Churchill

3 - What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give. P.D.James

2. - May no gift be too small to give, nor too simple to receive,

which is wrapped in thoughtfulness,

and tied with love. L.O.Baird

1. - We should give as we would receive, cheerfully,

quickly, and without hesitation;

for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers. ~Seneca