These Times

Note: I’m taking three weeks off of paid labor, so this space will be filled with reruns of some favorite columns. The following ran in the Dec. 23, 2021, edition. Fresh, unfocused-group content returns June 27.

This is a story about a gift my father gave me when I was 5 years old. This memory is as true as any memory can be that’s summoned from a long-gone Christmas.

I’m child No. 4 in a four-child family, and when we were wee our family was the type that put Christmas presents under a Christmas tree. We lived in northwest Spokane in a house atop a steep hill where the distant field lights of...