Something that always impresses and touches me is how people in the Alton area give so much at Christmas time, particularly those who are hurting or not well off themselves.

So many times this season I’ve heard people mention “pay it forward” or some other interpretation they have of karma – if they give, they will “get” back something good somewhere down the line.

Of course, that shouldn’t be the main reason for helping others.

One woman I talked to this week lost her job in July, but insisted her children are not hurting as she collected food, toiletries and other goods for others so they would have a good Christmas.
She doesn’t plan on keeping any rejected or surplus items, saying they will go to a pantry or other local charity.

I noticed that the Alton Salvation Army’s red kettle campaign already is at nearly 29 percent of its goal of raising $110,000 locally. The marquee outside the citadel on Alby Street said it had raised $31,650, but that amount has been posted for several days so I’m sure it’s higher than that by now.

Children especially love to drop (or push, if it’s a greenback) money into the kettles, although the newer red buckets are plastic so the coins don’t jangle so much.

Speaking of children, my story in today’s Telegraph about the Salvation Army’s Angel Trees is another chance to give at a level at which you are comfortable. It’s also anonymous.

This annual effort lets people pluck a gift tag with a disadvantaged child’s Christmas wishes and clothing sizes. The “secret Santas” buy the gifts, bring them back to the tree site unwrapped and thereby help a child up to age 12 have a better Christmas.

Last year gifts were slow in coming in, but at the end, citizens came forward with gifts for all 958 “angel” children.

The campaign needs extra help this year because the Salvation Army is not getting gift cards from the Santa train, as the Holiday Express is bypassing Godfrey this year.

Check out the story at: http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/alton-33793-salvation-army.html, where you can find a list of tree locations.

Don’t forget, if you attended an Alton Police Benevolent and Protective Association event this year, the money you contributed or spent on a ticket will go to holiday food baskets to be delivered in a few weeks to needy families.

Some of the money also will be spent locally at Target on Dec. 12 when Alton police officers volunteer to take 48 less fortunate children on a shopping spree (at last count).

Also, for the first time in this area, people were able to drop off coats in Kurt and Brenda Warner’s Coats for Kids drive. It felt nice to clear out a half dozen coats from my closets.

Another usually successful effort, Community Christmas still has collection boxes to garner clothing and toy donations.

And I hear super do-gooder Bobbie Vandalia, despite her health problems, still is planning to hold the annual, free Christmas dinner at College Avenue Presbyterian Church in Alton for anyone – the needy or those just wanting a meal with fellowship. The Telegraph will publish details on that later.

Look around and see what you can do, donate something or maybe help out a family you know whose breadwinner(s) lost a job this year?

And drop in some coins and bills in those red kettles.

It can get cold out there ringing those bells, believe me, so make the ringers happy, too!

A “senior moment” is only funny if it happens to someone else. Maybe I should replace “funny” with relief that it wasn’t me.

Recently I was at the rear of a large grocery store, (OK, the really big Dierbergs in Edwardsville), inspecting the fresh loaves of bread, trying to decide which one would go best with dinner. I finally made my selection and turned around to put the loaf in the shopping cart.

I couldn’t find the cart.

I looked and looked. No cart. I walked past several aisles to my right, then around the bread display a couple times, casually peering into a few carts in the area. I didn’t see mine, only “claimed” carts people were pushing, except for one. That one cart was all by itself, with no apparent shopper nearby, and containing food I never would buy.

Dodging blueberries someone had spilled all over the floor, I walked to the dairy wall to the left. No cart. What to do? What had I done with the cart? I was totally baffled. I was confused and starting to get agitated. Was I looking at the bread so long that an employee had taken it? Should I just go home?

This went on for what seemed like a long time, but it probably wasn’t. I just couldn’t figure out how I had totally lost the cart I had spent so much time filling with groceries.

Then, a cashier walking a near mile from the front of the store somehow picks me out from several shoppers in the bakery area. She is carrying some beer, the type I had put in my cart. She asks if the beer is mine. Umm, more importantly, where is the food I wanted to buy? That’s what I really wanted. And where is my cart?

The next thing I notice is an older man and younger woman who I’d seen as I perused the aisles of the store, pushing a shopping cart that had the same groceries I had put in my cart. It WAS my cart. They had made it all the way to the checkout lane, all the way to the front of the gigantic grocery store and were checking out or nearly checking out. There, the woman apparently got upset when she thought the man had put beer and ice cream in the cart, the cashier explained.

The man claimed innocence.

I guess she didn’t notice that there also was sushi, a can of spicy Indian food and acai juice, which I seriously doubt if the man ever bought, according to what I saw in the abandoned cart nearby.

We exchanged carts with few words. I gave him the only item he had put in my cart, Excedrin, and they walked the distance back to the checkout lane with their own food.

Greatly relieved, I told the nice cashier, “I thought I was having a senior moment!”

“No, he was,” she said with a smile. Whew!