Smack Dab in the Middle

  I remember when I first knew for sure there was no Santa.   My sister Sandra and I were playing on our screened in  porch on an unseasonably warm day in December. It had to be warm. The porch had seventeen windows, each covered in a pane of glass for the winter, but you could feel and hear the cold air whistling through the cracks. The porch also had no heat and would have been impossible to play in under normal winter conditions. Mom kept a giant freezer out there, tucked against the wall connected to the kitchen which had the electrical outlet. The back of the porch held  everything from paint cans, ladder, tools, holiday decorations, discarded furniture and toys. that might one day be needed but were not part of the household furnishings. This section was covered by a folding screen about 6 feet high. Sandra and I sat next to the windows, fooling around at a table- probably playing house or some such thing. We were always inventing games, building forts, creat...