[Harmless Teddy Bear]

My dad used to talk about how he would get an orange for Christmas. One year it was a banana.

I grew up in the tropics so I got an apple. Mmmmm was it good. Never saw a pear until I got back stateside.

[Bon of Babble]

My dad mentioned this as well - he’d get one orange in his Christmas stocking - this was the height of the depression, my grandfather was unemployed and the dead of winter in Indianapolis. He was grateful to get it.

Years later, when he settled in California, he planted every variety of orange he could find - he planted the Washington navel in my own yard 30 years ago, produces the sweetest oranges on earth in the dead of winter. My well-off uncle put an orange in his kids’ Christmas stocking every year as a reminder.

Miss Dad every day and think often of that single Christmas orange.