One of my fondest Christmas memories goes back to 1960
in Billings, Montana. I was a student at Montana State University College of Nursing but was struggling with illness at the same time. I had just been discharged from the hospital, days before Christmas and had not done any shopping. So I caught the bus at the stop right outside the nurses dormitory and headed for the streets of downtown Billings.

It was chilly, on second thought, it was cold and it was a scene from Christmases past in the movies. It was about 7 in the evening, there was a light, fluffy layer of snow on the sidewalk
and I recall walking past the F. W. Woolworth Store, where I had worked as a clerk in the fish and plant department the summer before I entered nursing school.

The city of Billings had a sound system just for Christmas with speakers attached to the streetlight posts. As I walked from one shop to the other, I recall especially this song, "Silver Bells" as sung by the wonderful, incomparable, Johnny Mathis. It was MAGIC, simply MAGIC. As he sang the words to the song, the traffic lights DID, indeed blink a bright red and green, and there were many shoppers rushing home with their treasures. Little
did I know at that time that I would be lucky enough to one day meet Mr. Mathis in person and hear him sing that song from the stage. Magic, they call it "Mathis Magic". So when I saw this
set, so beautifully designed by Sindy Vorderstrasse, I knew that this web page had to be made. Thank you, Sindy for making
the heading just right for me and for the extra buttons too.

I often tell this story to my friends at Mathis Music Messengers,
so I offer this as a little gift to them. They are a group of dear
friends that I treasure.