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Showing posts from December, 2010

Is it really the thought that counts?

I pulled out one of my favorite Christmas traditions a week or so ago, so now whenever I get the chance, I've begun working my way through a 60-episode collection of Christmas old-time radio episodes. I guess that I'm old enough to I forget most of the plots between Christmases, and the ones I do remember I still enjoy. I've been reminded of something that I noticed for the first time last year--the American culture of the 1940s regarding gift-giving. In numerous episodes, people are shopping for Christmas gifts, but the things that they are buying for each other surprise me. Not specific to one show, but throughout a variety of programs, the adults are buying gifts for each other like neckties, handkerchiefs, pens, and even cigarettes. The presents are more like little remembrances--thoughts--than gifts. (There are even commercials recommending soap as a gift, with which I heartily concur, but not the Lux and Ivory varieties that they promote....) Yes, some of these shows