It seems every year the holiday season rolls around earlier than the last. Yet, as children, we thought it was never going to get here, while marking the days off on the calendar.

Thanksgiving was big in my family and was so looked forward to in my growing up. We had turkey two times a year, Thanksgiving and Christmas, in those days, unless you were lucky enough to live on a farm raising a few. The Great Depression put a damper on holidays for many. I remember one year during the 1930s, when a local church with little funds left a basket in front of our apartment door with a small turkey and all the trimmings. Mom cried when she found it.

Bless those people who shared what they had (it would have meant oatmeal, if we were lucky). Dad was sleeping on park benches in able to be first in line for a day’s work in Seattle, hoping to put bread on the table much less turkey. He was studying to be a doctor when his world fell apart in 1929, the year I was born.

He never did reach his goal, as with so many others. We had no such thing as food banks back then. That is why today they are so dear to my heart. So, please, folks remember ours, especially the little Kingston Food Bank that survives on your donations. They receive no government grants as others do.

It was started privately in the Weaver basement many years ago by Barb Fulton’s parents, my dear friends Ray and VI Weaver.  Both are gone now, but Barb continues in their place.

I have known the family for more than 50 years and remember their many thoughtful services to Kingston. In the early 1970s, I worked to get community food banks started in Washington by putting in for government seed money while serving as vice chair of the Kitsap Community Action Program. We started them and then churches and communities took over. There have been many new ones since then.

I’m proud to have had a hand in this project. For some years I was a very busy lady after my children were raised and consider that period some of the best years of my adventurous life. For more information about the Kingston Food Bank, call Barb at 360-297-7100.

The ladies of Kingston Redeemer United Methodist Church will present the holiday bazaar 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 13 and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 14.

This year, they have added vendors with a variety of items, such as artwork, jewelry, watercolor arts, New Moon Gardens creams, lotions, body wraps, wreaths, snowmen, wood bowls, and the ladies’ own beautiful handmade crafts.

There will be the traditional Slice of Pie corner with coffee, a yummy bake sale and books to browse through for winter reading. You can be sure I will be there to do my shopping. Funds are used for church and community. The address: 9900 Shorty Campbell Road. Turn on Parcells off Highway 104.

Questions? Call Carol Moser, 297-5101.

—Contact Jacque Thornton at jacquejt@centurytel.net.