K-Mart Toy Land Sale, 1976

I got an Ideal Toss Across this very Christmas. Apparently my first-grade teacher said I needed more hand-eye coordination, and this game was my mother's solution. My mother brags now how it improved my skills, but I don't ever remember actually using it. And I'm still kind of clumsy...

--Brian H.

Christmas Figurines, 1977 JC Penney Catalog

I really dig these little guys, especially that Santa.

—Brian H.

Hecht's Department Store, 1976

"Bountiful garlands and ornaments abundant with colors portray the true meaning of Christmas in Hecht's downtown Washington, D.C. store."

--Brian H.

Snapshot No. 3: The Flood

"I think this was in the main court of the mall, and [Santa] was a very, very lucky fellow because that look on my face is pure, unadulterated terror. And, then as now, when I get upset, my stomach gets in knots. I got about two feet off off Santa's lap, and my mom said I absolutely filled my pants.

They had just put me back in the stroller -- Grandma was there with me -- and they had just set me back in the stroller, and [my mother] said it just let loose. She said it was, yeah, all over the floor, it was in the stroller. She rolled me down back to the bathrooms, which were way down by Sears, leaving a trail behind us, and sent my grandma to go find the cheapest set of clothes she could find.

And that I believe is the only other picture I have with Santa. She never took me back to the mall."

Betsy Cech (as told to Joal R.)
Woodland Mall, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Circa 1972-1973