Sunday, December 25, 2022

The plot to snow Santa

 The old man telling the story lived in an age when kids tacked stockings to the mantel, hoping for some nuts and perhaps an orange.

One Christmas Eve, this young fellow and his brother devised a scheme. Each brother tacked up his stocking — and then tacked up several others, hoping to fool Santa.

On Christmas Day, the boys found nuts and oranges in two stockings. The rest were filled with soot and switches. The brothers disposed of the switches before their parents awoke.

The Texas I grew up in had a raw sense of justice. It was primitive, almost unthinkable now, yet it was imparted to children in many ways.

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