To the editor:

Your columns, “A surprising Christmas gift,” and “The Best Christmas Gift of All” (Dec. 25) reminded me of my own childhood and were inspiring to me.

I feel a little sadness that kids today so often get what they asked for — no real surprises like those we looked at in the Sears catalog. You reminded me of times when I got better gifts than I had chosen, like the snow suit other friends had already been wearing — we didn’t think our parents had even noticed.

I am thankful for those memories. I think our catalogs were also worn out by the time we kids “devoured” them with shiny eyes and pencils, marking gifts we rarely if ever got.

I was 8 the year my brother caught a mink in his traps and sold the pelt for $10.

Portsmouth had put up electrical poles on Route 17, but we had to pay to have the power connected to our house, and there was no extra money for that.

My brother gave Mom the money, which made it possible for us to have the electricity turned on in our house. We had Christmas music on the radio that year, the first time since the fire had destroyed the old farmhouse three years earlier.

Thanks for the reminders of those “good old days.”

Myrtle Virginia Thompson

Suffolk