Remembrance of Oranges Past

I bought a box of Christmas oranges today, which in and of itself is really not terribly noteworthy. However, it got me thinking back to what it was like when I was a kid.

Every year the children of my church put on a Christmas program involving songs and readings and every year we were rewarded for going through the trauma of performing in public with a small paper bag of treats. Most of the bag was filled up with peanuts, but there was always usually a couple of other nuts, including the most prized of all nuts -- the Brazil nut. There was also always a few pieces of sugar candy, a chocolate or two, and a tiny, perfect orange from Japan or China.

Back then we called them Christmas oranges, because they were only available in the stores at Christmas. These days we call them mandarins or clementines, depending on where one lives in Canada. I think our name was better.