Stocking stuffers. You have them at Christmas, do you not? So do we. We’ve always had them.

The rule is that they must be cheaper than all that other stuff already doled out.

We put them on the table for Christmas dinner, alongside the paper Santa hats.

I know, some dolt somewhere, put his engagement ring in her stocking. OK, cute, but stupid. He still had to get down in all that tinsel, on one knee.

This year, the stocking stuffer gift from She to me was a 1,000-piece puzzle of my birthplace, St. Louis, Missouri. God bless her old-fashioned heart.

Briefly, I left St. Louis in the 5th grade to live with an older brother in Bellevue, Washington, then with another brother in Waukegan, Illinois, where I joined the Air Force and never came back anywhere … except for short visits.

Since then, St. Louis has changed SO much, filled with dead friends and family, disappearing streets and entire neighborhoods, street lamps and restaurants. If not for that imposing monstrosity, the “Arch,” this city could be anywhere.

Only the Mississippi River remains and looks familiar, but as the song goes, “It just keeps rolling along,” and it does. So do I. I could wear a T-shirt that says that.

Here’s a refresher: “The first jigsaw puzzle was created by a map engraver called John Spilsbury, in 1762. He mounted one of his master maps onto wood and then cut around the countries. He gave it to children in the local school to help them with their geography education. And in that act, jigsaw puzzles were invented.”

Do you know how they came to be called “jigsaw puzzles”? Bet you don’t. Google it, I only have an hour to finish this. And I’ll wager that you don’t even have a jigsaw in the closet. You should get one. I’m going to.

Growing up in the ’30s and ’40s, everyone, it seems, had a jigsaw. I’ll bet your parents and grandparents here in Maine had one. They’re really stormy winter things.

My Sister Rita had such a jigsaw puzzle. She commandeered the dining room table for it, that we never used except for birthdays and wakes.

Then each of my eight member family started stopping by on the way to dates, proms, school games and the bathroom. They would crowd around and give suggestions, even rearrange pieces, spill food and coffee on them.

One day Rita met Ricky Reichenbacker, and they got married, and left “The Garden of Versailles” with the famous hedges unfinished. It was there until my father died, and we needed the table for the wake.

I’m told that jigsaw puzzles are still popular. They are featured in nursing homes, retiree residences, all prison game rooms and rodeo bunkhouses. I’m told that Donald Trump is building one of the White House, as we speak.

Someone told me that they are used by the CIA to teach their students what Moscow looks like. Donald Trump actually has a 100,000-piece puzzle of a golf course.

They say you can get one made of your wedding, births and maybe the divorce party. Wedding pictures. Wanna drive yourself crazy? Try one of a snowstorm in the North Pole or the House trying to impeach Biden.

Hey! Wanna buy St. Louis?

J.P. Devine is a Waterville writer. 

Copy the Story Link