I was 7 years old.

My siblings and I only got toys at Christmas time, but that year we got something extra special, a surprise we did not anticipate.

2 weeks before Christmas, we tramped into the woods with Daddy to cut down our cedar tree we had found months before.

We dragged it home, set it in the tree stand, trimmed off a few branches and tossed the trimmings into the fireplace to burn.

Daddy always put the string of colored bulbs on the tree and we kids would do the decorating.

Daddy worked for Burlington Mills in Batesburg. The company had a special event for the employees’ children that year.

I remember metal bleachers against the wall where parents sat with their children in a big auditorium.

What I most remember were the big white shopping bags clustered at the end of the room, a picture of Santa on the side. I knew those shopping bags were for us.

The children were lined up. We went by and each child received a bag.

In my bag were a coloring book, crayons, jack stones, a kaleidoscope, a net stocking with hard candy inside and some fruit and nuts. It was like winning the lottery to me and my siblings.

The net stocking full of hard candies we immediately tried to hang on our Christmas tree at home.

It didn’t work.

No matter where we tried to hang them, the tree would fall and we would have to sit it up again.

Finally we admitted failure and gave up on hanging the stockings on our tree.

But getting that shopping bag of toys, candy and fruit was an extra special present for us that year.