A Christmas Memory

My mother was born in 1916 on a farm in Sharon Grove Kentucky. She had 7 brothers and sisters. They were very poor just like everybody else around that area. She said for Christmas children might get some fruit, a little candy and maybe one other gift. She said when she was little she would get something like a small doll. Christmas was the only time they would get a toy.

I was born in 1948. I looked forward to Christmas. Christmas and my birthday were the two times during the year that I got toys, games or what I considered really special gifts. We rarely got gifts that I considered worthy of Christmas at other times during the year. I remember getting two Mattel fake pearl handle cap pistols with a fake leather holster, a cowboy hat and a Roy Rogers denim jacket one year. Every little boy got cap pistols at Christmas. So far I haven’t heard that any of my friend have committed a crime because they got a cap pistol for Christmas.

When I got older and learned that Santa didn't exist I realized that my parents hid what we were getting for Christmas somewhere in the house. I would snoop around and try to find what they got me. I rarely found anything. My mother got very excited about Christmas. She couldn't wait for Mike and me to see what Santa was going to bring us. When Mike still believed in Santa my Mom would tell me what he was getting, but made me promise not to tell him. I knew she told him some of the things I would be getting.

One year I made a deal with Mike. If he would tell me what I was getting I would tell him what he was getting. Now Mike was still young and would believe anything. I told him he was getting some really fantastic gifts that were just too good to be true. They were too good to be true; I don't think I told him one thing that he was actually getting. He was so excited about what he thought he was getting that he told me everything he knew I was getting. I think poor Mike was a little disappointed when he opened his gifts that Christmas. He still got more than he deserved.