Christmas Past Now that the Christmas holidays are nearing it makes me think of what things used to be like years ago. One of the first things I think about was how my mother struggled to buy me toys for Christmas. We were poor and lived in a neighborhood with others who were in the same boat and even worse off in some cases. There was one family who actually was so poor they walked around in bare feet in the street. When I would see this, I was very thankful for the little we had. Even though I was just a little kid I felt sorry for these others. There was another family who would cut the backs out of shoes because the kid’s feet would grow and they couldn’t afford new ones. I guess today the equivalent is a third world country when I think about the old neighborhood. I was from a one parent family and my mother worked very hard to keep things together. We didn’t have much, but we had a roof over our head. A few times we ran out of food and a friend of my mother’s would invite us over for dinner. Everyone would buy at the local deli because the owner would allow you to run up a tab. As far as I know everyone would always pay their debts on payday. It never seemed to hurt his business. We were late with our rent a few times and the land lord would come around wanting to get paid. I remember my mother getting into an argument with the guy and saying we just don’t have it. He wasn’t a bad guy and would relent and wait for us to get the money. When it came to Christmas there were no lavish toys. I did get a few inexpensive ones. I remember one in particular; it was a ring toss game. In those days you could get one easily for less than a dollar. It seemed everyone would get one for Christmas. It had rings made from rope and dowels which went into a hole in a board and you would throw the ring and try and get it around the dowel. There was also the inexpensive magic set and chemistry set, and the chemistry set cost the most. My prize possession for years was a Budweiser wagon with tiny beer barrels loaded onto it pulled by wooden Clydesdale horses. The most expensive present I ever received was given to me by my extended family. They chipped in and bought me a two wheeled bicycle when I was about 10 years old. It was way too big so I had to put blocks on the pedals. I remember seeing it and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It had seemed to me to be something which would always be out of my reach. I rode that bicycle until I was old enough to get a car after we moved into a middle class neighborhood and I got a job. When I grew up, I went into the U.S. Army and that was where I met my wife, the light of my life. I wish she was still with me today, but cancer had other plans. She lived into old age and long enough to have grand children she loved. We had a rule when we were raising our children and that rule was, she wouldn’t work and I would work as hard as I had to, to support the family, this way she could be home to raise the children properly. It worked, I am very proud of my children who all live decent lives and have never been in trouble. Sometimes I worked seven days a week and she wanted to get a job to help me, but I stuck to my guns and everything turned out fine. To me raising my family right was the most important thing. When we think of Christmas presents today, we think of expensive gifts for children. There are still those in need, and more pouring into the country every day. The average American still spends a good deal of money on Christmas presents. I think the average family was said to spend about two thousand dollars. One of the most popular items is software. That is games. Games for computers, game consoles and cell phones. Some of the old board games have hung on and some have even become more popular such as Monopoly and Sorry among others and games which were popular here are now popular in many different countries. I have to say when my kids were little computers and game machines were nonexistent for the oldest ones when they were little and just starting for the younger ones. The thing they all seemed to want in the day was the popular red wagon. I remember every Christmas eve where I would put the kids to bed and then begin to put the toys together. There doesn’t seem to be as much of that activity anymore. I didn’t want to do it earlier because that would make things harder to hide. If something was in a nondescript box that was much better. It was Christmas eve one year and late at night when I decided it was wagon time and took the parts out of the box. To my horror the wagon I had didn’t have the holes drilled to attach the handle to pull and steer the wagon. What was I going to do, I didn’t own a drill at the time? I took a punch and kept hammering until I finally made the two small holes. I am sure the kids heard the racket but never came out of their room. I made sure every year they had a great Christmas and even when they got to be adults, they all made sure to come to my house on Christmas eve where presents would be exchanged. As time went by some of their in-laws joined in and we had quite a crowd every year and it became a great tradition. As old age began to affect our lives, people died. Some of the children’s in-laws died, my wonderful daughter died and my wife and the tradition stopped. I will never forget those days where the living room was covered with ripped wrapping paper, people were happy and laughing and we were all together. Christmas will never be the same for me anymore, but I thank God for all the good times we had in the past and all the love which came my way.
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