Days of Xmas past
Christmas, it appears, is a holiday for the youth. As a kid you get lots of presents, lots of neat toys. And a few practical gifts, like socks. But as you get older the neat toys vanish, the number of gifts dwindle, but the practical gifts remain. Shouldn't that be reversed. Come on now, socks, ties, and the like can any time of the year purchases. Christmas is for the fun and frivolous. And to that I list my all time favorite Xmas presents.
1. Lionel Train set. My mother bought this for me and my brother in 1969. Wabash Cannonball set and I still have and it still works.
2. Bicycle. I had several bikes throughout my youth but favorite was a gold one with a glitter gold banana seat and high-rise handlebar. That was a cool bike.
3. Hot Wheels cars. There was also "Johnny Lightning" cars that was neat but Hot Wheels had a better selection. My favorite was the Don"The Snake" Prudhomme funny car.
4. LEGO. These were the neatest building sets on the planet, well Lincoln Logs were cool too. But LEGOs were colorful and fun too work with. They have several imitators, but these are worth spending the extra bucks for.
5. Tonka Truck. Owning a Tonka Dump Truck was awesome. These big yellow vehicles could handle a lot of abuse from play and still keep going. I have a miniature version of that truck now, but I still drool over the site of a full size model.
6. Johnny Seven OMA. One Man Army rifle. This gun had everything. It was a rifle, a grenade launcher, an anti tank rocket launcher, a tommy gun. You could do some serious damage to with this. But military themed toys became unpopular the the OMA disappeared from store. A recent check on Ebay turned up several dealers, but they wanted 500 to 1000 dollars for the guns. I'll pass.
7. Board Games. Monopoly, Scrabble, Operation, The Game of Life. These were great family games to play and while there are online and game platform versions available, nothing beats the original forms.
8. Squirt Guns. Boy what havoc we could have wrecked if today's version was around 40 years ago. We had these little bitty things about the size of a TV remote, only held about a ounce of water, and leaked half of that every time you pulled the trigger. "Super Soaker". I think every kid in America had this rattling around in his head, but it took a Rocket Scientist with NASA to make it a reality. Amazing that it took him eight years to interest someone in manufacturing this. The kid in me is jealous.
Well there was one practical gift I treasured. My mother was working at the PX on Hunter and she bought me and my brother Navy style Parkas one year, the ones with the fur trimmed hoods. We caught snickers from the kids at the school bus stop but when your out there for ten to fifteen minutes waiting for the bus and it's about 35 degrees outside, we was downright toasty in our parkas. HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
1. Lionel Train set. My mother bought this for me and my brother in 1969. Wabash Cannonball set and I still have and it still works.
2. Bicycle. I had several bikes throughout my youth but favorite was a gold one with a glitter gold banana seat and high-rise handlebar. That was a cool bike.
3. Hot Wheels cars. There was also "Johnny Lightning" cars that was neat but Hot Wheels had a better selection. My favorite was the Don"The Snake" Prudhomme funny car.
4. LEGO. These were the neatest building sets on the planet, well Lincoln Logs were cool too. But LEGOs were colorful and fun too work with. They have several imitators, but these are worth spending the extra bucks for.
5. Tonka Truck. Owning a Tonka Dump Truck was awesome. These big yellow vehicles could handle a lot of abuse from play and still keep going. I have a miniature version of that truck now, but I still drool over the site of a full size model.
6. Johnny Seven OMA. One Man Army rifle. This gun had everything. It was a rifle, a grenade launcher, an anti tank rocket launcher, a tommy gun. You could do some serious damage to with this. But military themed toys became unpopular the the OMA disappeared from store. A recent check on Ebay turned up several dealers, but they wanted 500 to 1000 dollars for the guns. I'll pass.
7. Board Games. Monopoly, Scrabble, Operation, The Game of Life. These were great family games to play and while there are online and game platform versions available, nothing beats the original forms.
8. Squirt Guns. Boy what havoc we could have wrecked if today's version was around 40 years ago. We had these little bitty things about the size of a TV remote, only held about a ounce of water, and leaked half of that every time you pulled the trigger. "Super Soaker". I think every kid in America had this rattling around in his head, but it took a Rocket Scientist with NASA to make it a reality. Amazing that it took him eight years to interest someone in manufacturing this. The kid in me is jealous.
Well there was one practical gift I treasured. My mother was working at the PX on Hunter and she bought me and my brother Navy style Parkas one year, the ones with the fur trimmed hoods. We caught snickers from the kids at the school bus stop but when your out there for ten to fifteen minutes waiting for the bus and it's about 35 degrees outside, we was downright toasty in our parkas. HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!