PAUL:	Born on April 1, 1949, it was either as an eight month 
	old at my first Christmas, or as a 20 month old at the first 
	Christmas I knew to be Christmas, that first I heard a word, 
	and recognized it as a word.

	The word was "stocking."

	My first thought, then.  "What does stocking mean ?"

	My parents cooed in over the cradle, dangling in front of me 
	objects designed for my entertainment.  Dolls, coloured balls, 
	jingly bells, toys of all manner and description.

	I remember their ululations as being indecipherable.

	Until "stocking." 

	The Christmas Stocking, hung from the mantelpiece with care.

	What does "stocking" mean ?

	A bag, a sack, a receptacle, a gauzy, misty, secret, alluring soft 
	place scented with the unknown and yet the attractive.

	But not just stocking, "Christmas stocking." 

	As a Christmas stocking, it promised even more.  It held delights, 
	brought gifts, tiny playthings for which one did nothing, they just 
	appeared on one day a year.  A child's mystery about presents and 
	Santa Claus ... and stockings.

	How those pleasures were magnified for me in later life.

	A shapely, silky leg slipped into a softly sighing and slightly 
	electric and snug fitting black-topped fabric that wrapped itself 
	like a friendly lecher around an instep, an ankle, a calf, a thigh ... 
	then strapped in place by the sensuous garter, the garter merely the, 
	the slightest of hindrances, the occasion of a little lingering, the 
	soft coaxing, the earnestness of male youth; Hallowe'en, make-believe, 
	tricks and treats, what a lovely looking young girl you are;  theatre 
	class, dress-up, boys will be girls, the lipstick, the powder, the 
	undergarments of sin.

	Ah, yes, what does stocking mean?

CD 7526    Dr John  "Il est ne, le devin enfant"  cut 16  2:54