Last year, I talked about the gift of compassion, so I though I would share another story this year.
I was in 7th grade. My mom had been split from my sisters dad for about 6 months. We lived in a trailer park about 5 trailers down from my sister's dad. My mom had been having some problems and lost her state job and was now soley waiting tables at a bar at night. One night while she was out, my brother and I got into her closet looking for gifts. We found some invisible markers and a plastic Batman motorcycle helmet. We didn't think much about it and didn't realize that we had found all of our Christmas presents for the year. We may have gotten something else, but if we did I don't remember it. It was a very bad Christmas for us.
At about noon we all walked my sister down to her dad's trailer so that she could open her presents there. My sister's dad had on okay job making okay money and a roommate to help split the cost on the already dirt cheap trailer. Needless to say that my three year old sister was going to make out like a champ. When we got there, the tree was loaded with gifts, but there was a gift apiece for my brother and me. My nine year old brother, who loved legos, go the lego pirate ship. It was totally awesome and he could put it together without instructions by the end of the day. I got a Nintendo Entertainment Center. It was the one that came with mario and duck hunt and I was in heaven.
All these years later, I am sure that my brother and I thanked him for the gifts, but I don't think we ever thanked him for not just saving Christmas, but making it one of our best Christmases ever. I mean, there have been years since when I got way more gifts, or way more expensive gifts, but these gifts were well thought out, unexpected, and at a very dark time in our lives. Although I know you won't be reading this, Thank you Bobby.
3 comments:
Great story, Budd. I can just imagine how you must've lost your mind right on the spot. You got the set with Zapper and everything! :)Man, I forgot all about invisible ink pens. Did you ever get those "Yes & Know" books as a kid? They came with a revealer pen and all the games were invisible ink based.
I think the set had one of those books. It had more than the one pen though. It had like ten plus the invisible ink one. I won't say that I didn't have fun with the pens, but mario and duck hunt ruled the day. Maybe my brother put his lego ship together while wearing the helmet, I can't remember.
This is better than good.
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