As a tyke I remember Santa Claus and the big to do at Christmas. Maybe it was more important back then...today the affluence and indifference of our modern angst has probably diminished both Christmas' and Santa's influence.

If marketers in fact invented Santa then they did one heckuva job. From the earliest times I could remember 'what is Santa bringing you this year' or 'did you write Santa a letter yet? 'Have you been a good little boy this year?' My relationship with Mr. Claus was certainly not atypical of my time and space; all the other kids bought into the same argument. I also understood that Santa's gig was unconditional and even if I had done a few naughty things he would most likely overlook them. Ho, Ho, Ho...which if we are to understand, means something totally different now.

As I got a little more world wise and got out and about, especially starting to play with other kids and go into their homes and see whole new families, I began to wonder. Some of the kids said Santa was a fairy tale and others said their parents didn't believe in Santa so they didn't either. Others said it was stupid to write a letter to Santa because parents buy the gifts anyway.

Not believe in Santa? Not write the obligatory wish list? My God! As a four year old it was hard to imagine how anyone could not like the guy...what was there not to like? But there were always those smart aleck kids that would say things like 'we don't have a chimney here in Florida, is Santa going to leave us out?'

Of course not I would reply defending his scruples, Santa didn't leave anybody out. Santa was an equal opportunity distributor. But there was something fishy as the evidence slowly came in that it was in fact ma and pa who went to the store and bought the gifts; not Santa making them up at the North Pole with a bunch of elves and delivering them in an anti-gravity delivery sleigh.

Then, like millions of other baby boomer kiddies, I came to the stark and unbelievably cruel conclusion that Santa did not exist. Upset and shattered, I cried to ma that it looks like my man Santa was a cruel hoax hoisted on me by those that thought it funny to tell little boys lies. Oh, cruel world!

Thank goodness for ma. Had it not been for her I would have lost all faith in humanity for ever right then and there and become a hardened cynic. Creating something like Santa and then taking him back, especially from four year olds, just did not seem like the American thing to do. It wasn't

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