GaryOsberg.com

Good morning from Collegeville,

Four days until Christmas. I have all of my shopping done and now I simply have to pace myself on the cookies and candy.

Children love Christmas, as well they should. As with most families, some years, Christmas gifts were easy to come by and some years the budget would not allow for much. The Christmas of 1956 was a memorable one for me. My mother had to make a change due to Dad’s inability to handle alcohol. We were living in an apartment in Little Falls. That Christmas, Santa brought us six big Tonka Toy 18 wheel trucks. There was a cattle truck, an oil tanker, a freight truck and three more. This was a perfect gift for a family with five boys. For many years I had the impression that they were from some sort of social agency that served the poor. It turned out that the “Santa” was Dewey Johnson, a classmate of my mother from the Upsala High School class of ’37. Dewey’s friend was one of the founders of Tonka Toys. Dewey had already passed on before I learned the “rest of the story”, so I never did have a chance to thank him.

Perhaps you know of a family that has come upon hard times and they could use a “Secret Santa”.

Here is the link to getting the 24 foot Christmas tree into The Great Hall: http://bit.ly/7H3YDf

The APHC show this week is live from The Town Hall in New York City. Special guests include Broadway leading lady Kelli O’Hara, Bensonhurst harmonizers The DiGiallonardo Sisters, pianist and conductor Rob Fisher and cellist Anneke Schaul-Yoder. Enjoy the show.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.