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Thursday Column Reprise

Note from Dan: While I’m on vacation, I’m treating you to oldie-but-goodie columns from the past. This one originally ran Dec. 18, 2012. It brought in mail form Massachusetts, California, and many, many head lice recipes. Fortunately, we haven’t had to use any of those in the Casey household this year.

Friends and relatives have long pondered the Casey family tradition of dining at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve.

The truth is, it was all because of head lice. Hopefully, this will be the last time I have to tell that story.

It began on Christmas Eve 1993 when we lived in Annapolis, Md., which is pretty much the place I grew up.

We had three daughters at the time (our son, Zach, came along later). Caitlin, the eldest, was 6 (she’s now 24) and in first grade. Erin, now 21, was 3. And Anna, now 18, was 5 months old.

Our church had a late-afternoon Christmas Eve Mass for families with young children. We were in the process of getting ready for that. Donna was in the upstairs bathroom with Cait, whose hair she had washed moments earlier.

I heard a blow dryer go on for a moment, and then it shut off and a piercing shriek filled the house.

“Oh, my God!

“Dan — get up here!”

I rushed up the stairs and into the bathroom.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“She has bugs in her hair!”

Donna parted Caitlin’s damp brown locks and showed me a tiny dark speck on her scalp. It was barely visible.

“Are you sure?” I shrugged. “That looks like dandruff.”

“Dandruff is white, you idiot!” Donna shouted. She rooted around further in Cait’s tresses until she found a second, then a third. And a fourth.

“Here’s another!” she cried. “And another!”

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.