Yeah, Jerry, only "Evening in KC" perfume was labeled as "part fume" which we, of course, took to be French for perfume. It was useful year round, killing roaches and rats in the Winter and skeeters and sich in the Summer. Buzzards didn't come around much, either, when the stopper was out of the bottle. Yeah, they just don't make perfumes like they used to.

Actually, the part about the oyster stew on Christmas Eve is true. (So's the rest of it, only a Higher Truth.)

We too used to get and give chocolate covered cherries (Mom had PLENTY of "Evening in Paris" btw). We kids were banned from giving and getting them after a couple of Christmases, though -- we'd discovered that you could soften them up a little and they would then make a very nice "SPLAT!" when thrown at your brother. The SPLAT was satisfactory whether or not you hit him, too. Cleaning the result up was, ah, interesting, especially if it had been around for some weeks and had started to pulsate and glow.

Tangerines were a different story. We only got them as Christmastime and would eat them even when they'd dried out considerably. The trick was in spitting the seeds across the bedroom, annoying your brothers who were trying to read. Bank shots and high angle shots were especially useful.