What happened? I was shopping at Costco the other day and looked up. Couldn’t miss the confusing decor. Mounted on high above the Scott’s Lawn and Turf Fertilizer, the Wet and Forget Moss Remover and the on-sale patio furniture —- was a Santa’s lane of Christmas trees glowing and twinkling at me in all their resplendent decorated glory. The date was September 28th.

There was yet another parade of more twinkly Christmas trees mounted just above the early displays of Halloween costumes, M&Ms and Snickers Bars awaiting purchase for the Trick or Treaters who would be arriving on our dooorsteps at the end of October. Like the Boy Scouts, Costco, it seems, is determined that we all ”Be Prepared” with all the Christmas glitter we can handle.

I’d rant on about my indignant resentment of seeing such crass commercialism at my favorite store, but I’d be lying. (Okay, Dollar Tree might be my favorite, but Costco comes in as a close second.) During my childhood, Christmas shopping wasn’t featured in stores until the day after Thanksgiving but to be perfectly truthful, I have to confess that I’m rather fond of the early twinkly lights and jingle bells and well-laced-eggnogs-to-come because it all reminds me of what has to be the best Christmas of my childhood.

It happened in December of the year I was either 9 or 10 years old – probably in 1940 or so. One morning, my mother called my sister Joan, my brother Jimmy and me into the kitchen for what was to be an astonishing ceremony. (My brothers Leo and Richard must have been too little.) Mother handed each of us a one dollar bill and said, ”This is so you can go to Woolworth’s and do some Christmas shopping!”

We were stunned. Flabbergasted. None of us had ever owned such riches. I can still remember holding that dollar and staring at it in disbelief and awe. The most wealth I had ever previously acquired was 20 cents.

What happened next is still a blur, but my ever-bossy sister Joan managed to get all three of us organized and, clutching our precious finances, we proceeded to walk as fast as we could downtown to Woolworth’s Five and Ten Cent Store.

Woolworth’s was a veritable wonderland during the Depression! Especially for three dazed kids with a fortune to spend. For 55 years, every item in the store was priced at 5 cents or 10 cents, until 1939 when 20 cent items were also included.

In its 1940 series entitled “Dime Store,” the Post recorded the inventory at Frank Woolworth’s store when it opened on February 22, 1879. It included—Toy dustpans. Tin pepper boxes. Drinking cups. Gravy strainers. Tin scoops. Purses. Biscuit cutters. Flour dredges. Schoolbook straps. Egg whips. Apple corers. Fire shovels. Boot blacking. Animal-shaped soap. Animal-shaped Cake Cutters. Candlesticks. Ladles. ABC plates [plates with the alphabet inscribed around the rim]. Scalloped pie plates. Baseballs. Cast-iron [cooking pot] cover lifters. Tack hammers. Writing books.  Pencil charms.  Shaving Lather brushes.  Tin spoons. Police whistles. Pie plates. Red jewelry. Napkins, handkerchiefs, thread, and novelties.

By 1940, though, the huge inventory was augmented by a long lunch counter where you could buy, for instance, a ham salad sandwich and Jell-O for 10 cents and you could finish it off with an ice cream soda for another five cents. We never even considered squandering any of our wealth on such trivialities, though. We were preserving it for the purchase of Christmas presents for our whole family. We found all kinds of dolls, toys, games, puzzles, costumes, school supplies, art stuff, cosmetics like compacts, face powder with powder puff sets, little bottles of Heaven Scent perfume, wallets and purses, fancy hanky and comb sets, china and earthenware dishes, pots and pans, etc., etc., etc.

For my brothers, I bought a whistle, a horn, and a drum set so they could have a band. For my sister, I picked out a diary with a lock on it (which I could pick when she wasn’t looking). My dad got a fancy engraved pipe and ashtray. But the largest portion of my fortune was reserved for my mother’s gift, because when I saw it, I knew she had to have it. It was a gold brooch with shiny glass jewels she could pin on her coat. It cost a whole 20 cents, but I was too dazzled to care about such an exorbitant expenditure.The price be damned. It was absolutely gorgeous! It was irresistible!

By the time, Joan, Jimmy and I finished our shopping, we each had big sacks full of our precious purchases, and we even had money left over which we immediately spent on candy, much of which was devoured on our exciting trip to get back home.

With her usual foresight, Joan had had the sense to use some of her fortune to provide for some gift paper so she helped Jimmy and me wrap our prized presents for the family. It was beyond exciting! I’m never going to forget how those magical packages looked! Probably messy and clumsily wrapped, but full of amazing secret treasures!

You’ll be disappointed in me, but I couldn’t stand the wait! Yes, I’m ashamed to tell you that on that very day, I couldn’t control myself. I presented my gift to my mother practically as soon as I got it wrapped. I told her that if she would be very careful, she could open her gift to get a quick preliminary look at it, and that then I would carefully wrap it up again so that she could once again experience, for the second time, the joy of opening it on Christmas Eve and gazing upon it once again.

I can still remember her big smile when she saw it. And then she helped me re-wrap it in order to await the big day when she could open it again!

Well, I have to say, it was positively the most joyous Christmas I can remember of my growing-up years. I must have received presents myself but I have no memory of what they were. All I can remember was the thrill of handing out the bounty of my one dollar purchases! I had officially been indoctrinated to the old truth that ”It is better to give than to receive.”

A final footnote about my mother’s spectacular brooch. I never saw her actually wearing it, but that may be because it was simply too fine to wear for just everyday fashion. The one time when I later saw it in a drawer, I noticed that, oddly, instead of gold, it had turned green. The jewels still sparkled though, and for the rest of my life, I will always remember it as a thing of beauty! Now, I ask you, what’s a little tarnish when it comes to such a treasured jewel?