When I was a kid, the pages of our Sears & Roebuck catalog were well worn by the time Christmas rolled around each year. Mama and Daddy would give my brother and me the catalog as soon as it arrived in the mail and tell us to pick out a few things we'd like Santa to bring us.

Apparently, Santa and his elves had their workshop at Sears instead of the North Pole back in those days.

The Sears' catalog was where I picked out two of my favorite Christmas presents ever -- a Zip the Monkey and a Fort Apache.

Zip was an adorable stuffed monkey dressed in brown corduroy pants with red suspenders and a yellow T-shirt imprinted with his name. I loved that monkey. I slept with it and took it with me everywhere.

Zip went over much better with me than did the Betsy Wetsy doll Santa brought one year. After Betsy had soiled herself once, I totally lost interest in her, and she sat in a corner untouched for the rest of the holidays. Mama finally gave her to a neighbor's child.

My Fort Apache kept me entertained for hours, and it kept my poor mama on her hands and knees fishing the little plastic Indians, U.S. cavalrymen and horses out of the Electrolux vacuum cleaner. My brother and I whooped and hollered loudly with every imaginary attack on the fort, making for a very noisy Christmas Day and many noisy days to come.

I remember one Christmas Eve when I heard Santa downstairs setting up all our toys under the tree. I had asked him to bring me a record player. I'd never had one before. All of a sudden as I hid under the bedcovers for fear that Santa would know I was still awake and leave without dropping off any presents, I heard music coming from the hallway downstairs where the Christmas tree was perched. The music playing was "The Wayward Wind" by Gogi Grant, which was a popular hit that year. It also happened to be Mama's favorite tune.

Santa never failed to amaze me during my childhood. And when I became wise enough to know what was what, the concept of Santa amazed and touched me even more. I found out how hard Santa had to scrape to make ends meet and to provide us kids with many wonderful, loving Christmases that we still remember fondly.

All in all, old Mr. and Mrs. Claus did all right by us. I pray they knew just how well they did.

T&D Region Editor Carol B. Barker can be reached by e-mail at cbarker@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5525.

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