1 . In 1948, Ladies Home Journal selected our family for its “How America Lives” feature. The reporter and photographer arrived at the end of May and followed all of us (Mom, Dad, my brother, sister and me) for a week, recording our every move. Everyone was pretty excited about it, especially in our town of 6,000, where things like this just didn’t happen.

Since the article would be published in early December, we had to pretend it was already autumn. The reporter asked mom to cook and serve a complete Thanksgiving meal. She told Mom to “go all out” and use her best holiday dishes for the feast.

Mom’s face fell. She didn’t want to admit that our best dishes weren’t exactly the best, let alone suitable for a national magazine. While the reporter continued with her interview, the photographer quietly excused himself and slipped away for over an hour. When he came back, he had a large box, which he placed on the floor, telling Mom to open it.

Her mouth wide open, her face lit up as if it was Christmas. Inside was a beautiful set of 12 dishes, each painted with patterns of flowers and golden brims (金边), made by the Homer Laughlin China Co. There was even a soup bowl, something we kids had never seen before. Mom was near tears as she lovingly handled each piece.

When it came time to serve dinner, Mom walked slowly from the kitchen with the lovely new plate, which contained a small “turkey” (in reality, a large chicken).

From that day on, Mom made sure they never saw the light of day unless it was a major event, though they were a must at every Thanksgiving.

I carry on the tradition, using the dishes for our Thanksgiving feast. But I serve a real turkey, and I serve it on the real Thanksgiving Day.

4 . A senior has been reunited with his long lost brother and sister after more than 20 years, which is incredible. It was owing to the ________ he received when his dog and he picked up litter. 80-year-old Alfie Kitson and his five-year-old Spanish Podenco ________ in a video just before Christmas with the dog Millie tidying up ________ and putting it into the bin.

Kitson and Millie was a ________ sight on the streets of Hereford, because they had that for a few years. It was after the filming that Alfie was ________ by his sister’s husband as Millie was helping ________ the streets. The family was then ________ to track down Alfie to the village of Ulingswick, where he lives with his wife Judy.

________, Alfie has reunited with brother Dave, who’s 84, and 71-year-old sister Anne for the first time in more than two decades. Alfie had ________ from his siblings after moving to Coin in Málaga two decades ago. Alfie said, “My brother ________ to London years ago and my sister went elsewhere too.”

“I received a ________ recently from my granddaughter. On the phone she said my sister Anne was ________ to find me, I was only eight miles away.” I came back home one day and ________ there was my sister. She then got in touch with my brother Dave. “We all ________ up in Hereford, and now we have all been reunited,” Alfie says. “It has been ________.”

When I was about ten years old, my brother and I received a wonderful gift — tennis rackets and balls. We had never had the opportunity to play tennis, so this was exciting. However, there was one problem — the small town we lived in did not have a tennis court.

One Sunday morning my brother said, “Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s take our tennis rackets and balls to the school and hit the balls against the school building.”

“Great idea! Let’s go,” I agreed, not realizing what a lesson we would learn before the experience was over.

When we got to the school ground, no one was around, so we began hitting our balls against the side of the two-story brick building.

“I’ll hit it the first time,” my brother suggested, “then you hit it the next time. We’ll hit it back and forth to each other.”

So we began taking turns hitting the ball, getting more confident with each stroke. Actually, we became pretty good at returning the ball and we were hitting the ball higher and faster each time.

Suddenly, the unthinkable happened — the ball got out of control and went crashing through one of the upstairs windows.

We looked around and no one was in sight — except there was an old man stting on a porch halfway down the block.

Quietly, I asked, “Now what should we do? Our ball is inside the school.”

“Well,” my brother responded, “no one will know whose ball it is. And no one saw us, except that old man down there. And he probably can’t see this far.”

“He probably doesn’t know who we are anyway,” I added.

“Let’s go home,” my brother suggested.

“Okay,” I agreed. “Should we tell Mom and Dad?”

“I don’t know,” my brother answered.

Then we picked up the rest of our balls and headed for home, keeping silent all the way with our heads drooping.

8 . Back in 1958, I was crazy about the Norfolk and Western 746. The smooth bullet-nose engine with its orange and yellow lines and shiny streamlined black tender (车厢) seemed to have cast a spell on me.

Together the engine and tender measured a little shy of 2 feet—enormous by the toy train standards of the day. Even better, the 746 had a working headlight and smoker, and its tender sang high.

Unfortunately, the amazing 746 also had an amazing price—$50, equal to about $450 today. That was far more than my grandfather could afford. Instead, I had to be content with his little Lionel plastic, which was SIX INCHES shorter than the 746 and had no headlight, no smoker or no sound! But that was the best that my grandfather could give me at that time.

Years passed, and I was in my 30s. Complicated sound systems and computer controls dominated toy trains. I never gave a look. My interest in toy trains, I firmly believed, had faded, nor did my admiration for the 746, since my grandfather was not with me. The 746 was never called to mind. On an ordinary day, however, I happened to see the 746 outside the window of a train show. Just one look, I could not look away. Childhood memories that I tried to hide in the depths of my heart raced through my mind, happy or sad.

That day I took the 746 home and placed it in the centre of the room, and let my childhood dream sing its way around me. Smoke rose out from the engine and the soft song sounded from its tender. It seemed as if I could see the soft light in grandfather’s eyes and hear his cheerful laughter.