This post is based on one I’ve done in the past, but I’ve updated it some. I hope you enjoy it again.
The Secret Sam was my favorite Christmas present as a child. I still have it, and I will keep it, or perhaps pass it on to a grandchild. Oh, how I was excited and hoping the year I asked for my own Secret Sam. My mother told me it was a boy’s toy, but I was never a Barbie doll girl.
That was my spy year, my year of intrepid adventures around the neighborhood. It was one of my last Christmases as a child, I think, wanting toys and dreaming of adventures. Not too many years later, perhaps even the next one, my Christmas gifts would be stereos and albums, bell bottom jeans and paisley print turtlenecks.
Perhaps that is why the memory of it is such a treasure to me.
This year my grandchildren will be blessed with the breathless anticipation of what might be under the tree Christmas morning. They will be late to bed, too excited to sleep easily, and early to rise, rushing to the living room in all the excitement and wonder a child can have.
They are being taught the real reason for Christmas, and they will have opened the last flap on the Advent calendar the day before, they will place Jesus in the manger on Christmas morning, and some of them will have caught snippets of the Christmas story, perhaps even at Midnight Mass, but most are still too young to really understand the Biblical readings.
They have a book here at my house that unfolds into the journey to Bethlehem, and all the figures are there to travel or meet Mary and Joseph along the way. We read stories, we sing songs, we watch videos.
Together we have baked cookies and breads and made treats, and we have given them away. One granddaughter talks about Jesus and Mary and Joseph as if she is speaking of beloved family members who have gone on an exciting trip. She loves moving the nativity figures closer to the stable as Christmas approaches.
She is eight years old this year, and half the gifts she has asked for are toys, but the other half consists of cooking paraphernalia. She’s been making biscuits, breads, and cookies with me since she could stand in a chair, and now she wants to learn to cook on her own, more things than just breads.
This tells me her childhood days are beginning that wonderful, terrible transition into her preteen and maturing years. That fills me with joy as I see the wonder and potential in her, all the gifts and innocence she has to offer to the world. But as her grandmother, oh, how I’m going to miss my little girl, the first grandchild God gave to us.
We now have eight grandchildren, and two of them are older than her, some of them having come into our family through marriage. The youngest is three, probably my favorite year to get to spend Christmas with a child. This year I’ll enjoy as much of his wonder and excitement as I can.
I want to help nurture faith, hope, and love, generosity, joy, as well as create memories and enjoy the anticipation. I want to see Christmas through the eyes of happy children who see so clearly the joy, the promise, and the simpleness of it all.
Most of all, I want to share the feelings, the very same feelings of a child who exclaims “I love Jesus!” and means it with all their heart.
May your Christmas Eve be blessed with warmth and hope and family and stockings that will soon be full, a house filled with scents of the season, and the anticipation of the birth of our Savior.
I pray for those who can’t be home, especially our service men and women, all those who work to keep us safe and healthy, and those who just can’t be home with loved ones. I pray for those who are alone in the world, for children who won’t have a joyful and warm and safe Christmas.
I pray for those who are suffering and isolated because of the pandemic, and for families separated because of illness or quarantine.
I pray for the world to share the joy and peace of the season. God bless us every one.
This is not a political post. Please limit your comments accordingly, and allow us to enjoy some Christmas fun and cheer.
Secret Sam looks like fun, wish I had one way back when. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
Can’t say I’ve ever heard of it. My Christmases were hula hoops, yoyos, and Lionel trains! Mostly trains!
I still have my Lionel Trains, all packed away…….One of these days.
Mine was chemistry sets. My cousins and myself were either trying to make stink bombs or blow something up.
jdondet: Same here. With a strudy metal case, too. Back from the time when things were made of metal.
Yup.
Still have one in the kitchen…LOL. It’s a bit rusty, and some of the things in iside it had to ‘go away’ but it’s still ready.
I wanted Secret Sam but got Big Loo the robot instead.
I got one of those too back in the day! The ones in pristine condition today fetch a fair penny.
P.S. Merry Christmas to all!
my brother was terrified of it. I would hide in the closet and wait for him to approach.
eyes blazing – “I AM BIG LOO I WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU” – missiles and bombs firing
he would run screaming in terror.
today my brother is a liberal. I guess due to traumas suffered as a child…
Nowadays you could probably claim that as grounds for divorce. Could have been worse … could have been socks or underwear!
Do you remember the Corgi Toys James Bond Aston Martin DB 5? It was the best selling toy of 1964 or ’65. I never wanted one to play with but to display because it was just so cool!
“OPERATION” game board
Ahhh…Secret Sam. I did some serious investigating of shady going’s on around our farm house back in the late sixties I believe…And when I finally zeroed in on the culprit/s, I whipped out my Batman mask to save the day. My foster family was pretty poor back then, but the local doctors son I found out later, donated his unused Secret Sam brief case to me for Christmas…Oh the imaginary fun I had with that…Reminds me how important it is to call my grandchildren this 25th…Love and best wishes to all.
I must have missed it. I was a kid back in the sixties but I don’t remember Secret Sam. I remember Rock ’em Sock ’em robots but not Secret Sam. Still looking at Secret Sam today, I kind of want
one.
today, it’s called a smartphone
LOL
That was so beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing! And may you and yours be blessed with a wonderful Christmas!
My prayer for everyone is to understand they are not alone. Whether separated by physical distance because of job, military service and forced social distancing, or being newly alone because God called someone home, may you have peace and serenity knowing that He loves you and is always there for you.
Peace.
Fire truck pajamas, air gun, tree, wrappings, Mom & Dad, 5 brothers and sisters, 8 MM camera, church. Memories are forever.
My five brothers and myself got many presents for Christmas but Church was always the steady ever present Holiday standard.
My brothers in shirts and ties and myself in those dresses that included scratchy “petticoats” and my little white gloves.
I can only remember a few of the toys that were under the tree but I remember that we always had to stop laying with them to get ready for Mass.
We were grumpy about the whole thing but like all kids back then we did what we were told, and now we all have the beautiful memories of the sacred memories of Christmas being all about Christs birth more so than Santa. ( even as much as we loved Santa)
Like you say Puzzled memories are forever!
Thanks Mom and thanks Dad.
Finally got it posted correctly!>>>>>>
Got the Secret Sam one year and my most fav another. The Mattel Sonic Blaster…!!!! I think it is why my hearing is not what it used to be!
The actor in the commercial is Kurt Russell. He did a whole series of “agent zero-M” toy commercials. I hadn’t seen any of his child-actor work other than him kicking Elvis in the shin in “It happened at the World’s Fair.”
I had a Sonic Blaster for a short time. Some Safety Freaks started a PR campaign calling for them to be removed from stores. Something about kids breaking other kids eardrums with it or some silliness. My Mom fell for it and took it away from me. When I was a bit older Dad made it up to me with a Benjamin Franklin .22 cal pump up pellet rifle for Christmas. Loved that Ben Franklin.
Nice, I got a Johnny 7 in one or whatever it was called the year before but then got my Crossman pump bb/pellet gun! Best Christmas ever!
Merry Christmas to all the beautiful patriots nestled into the treehouse branches!
And the voice actor is William Conrad I think; Frank Cannon on the TV detective series and the narrator on Rocky and Bullwinkle.
I blame my loss of hearing on Genesis and Steve Winwood concerts. Not kidding ?
Roll with it, baby!
Mom could never afford Secret Sam level toys. Those were toys we could only dream about.
Secret Sam turned into Uncle Sam and now resides in huge databases accessed by a computer terminal. I bet this could have been Brenan’s start as a Secret Sam kid.
My sister and I was raised by our mom after dad died at 38 from cancer, we were 5 and 3. Mom was a piece working seamstress. We had little and lived in a small (700 ft) four room railroad apartment, one room was a makeshift sewing room where she worked at night and weekends for extra income. What was special to me and something I’ll always remember was that even though my birthday was 12/23 mom NEVER combined the gift giving and the two days were separate. Christmas was always Christmas. Thanks mom.
You had a wonderful Mom. My b’day is the 2nd and I learned the price you paid for having one close to Christmas.
My daughter’s birthday is at the beginning of February. Bonus is that Christmas toys and books are on sale after Christmas!
You and I share the same birthday, RGB. I always felt gypped until the year I was given my first 45 on my birthday – Daydream Believer by the Monkees. All was good with the world that year 🙂
We have a grandson who turned 7 yesterday. We always make a huge deal of his birthday as separate from Christmas and did he ever score last evening! Kids and adults all had a fantastic time, too. We all get to do it all over again tomorrow – can’t wait!
Merry Christmas! Thanks for sharing. God bless you all this blessed night and all the years to come.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS Menagerie and every Treeper everywhere! Bless you all for BEing!
Amen! Who knew Menagerie was a tom boy! ?
Jesus is the reason for the season and Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the father!
One of my best Christmas’s was when I was 6. I got a full set of Fire Trucks! Pumpers and a ladder truck!
15 years later I was riding one for a living. Merry Christmas everyone!
Love the sharing of your joy and your love. Thank you. God bless you and your family. I wish more Americans had such joy and such a feeling of belonging. I think we’d have a healthier nation, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
The key to it is in the word you mentioned: nurturing. I wish for all of us to remember our responsibility to nurture the young, whether they be in our own families or not.
Merry Christmas to all.
A blessing to read. Have a blessed Christmas, Menagerie, and all Treepers.
I remember Secret Sam. We must be about the same age SD. I wasn’t into Barbie either. (go figure, I have 7 brothers.)
In addition to toys, Santa always included a book. Tarzan books, Canterberry Tales, Hans Brinker, etc, which were interesting
But then- . Santa started leaving me the Hardy Boys books
I ate those books up, wishing I could do what the HBs did. but alas, I was a girl. Girls were supposed to be stay at home moms back then.
Then one year (& several yrs beyond), Santa began leaving me Nancy Drew books. I read the entire series. That did it. I knew what I wanted to do when I got older. My dream came true at age 25! Loved every minute of it.
Retired for several yrs now due to mandatory retirement age & bored to death..
Two things that drew me to the Treehouse:
Excellent Reporting with Receipts & I feel like it’s the next best thing to actually conducting a complex investigation.
Thank you SD & treepers
It was Menagerie who got the Secret Sam, not SD!
That was my biggest Christmas wish during the James Bond craze. My parents never went for it, so I missed out. Been bummed ever since:-)
Merry Christmas
I love it ! That was my favorite toy as well ! There were a whole series of them, all in black, and I had so much fun playing with my black guns and dressing in my black turtleneck shirt and my black pants and playing that I was a Secret Agent, or Harriet the Spy or something …
No one ever dared suggest that I shouldn’t be playing with a ‘boy’ toy — such concepts were completely foreign in our home. My mother was an MD and my father was a physicist turned Operations Researcher, so the biggest kind of controversy I ever heard was which branch of the sciences one would go into.
Thanks for sharing this — and boy I wish I still had my old toys …
What a beautiful Christmas story you have blessed us with. Blessed Christmas to all.
My favorite was a “Fanner 50” cap gun, just like all the western revolvers in the TV shows of the era. God bless you and yours and Merry Christmas!
Like you, Menagerie, dolls were not my thing. In my early years, I got trains, trucks, every kind of ball known to youngsters in my neighborhood. We didn’t get lots of toys but we thought we were the richest people in the world. Our stockings (which were literally socks, not store bought fancy things) would have an orange, a tangerine, an apple, some ribbon candy, assorted nuts, and maybe a candy cane or two. Santa always brought a year’s supply of underwear, a new toothbrush, maybe a comb and brush, one new outfit (usually for church), a new outfit for school, a pair of pajamas, and maybe a family game. We thought we were Santa’s favorites. We would always, before Christmas, help with food boxes for those less fortunate than we were and the elderly (I especially liked helping the elderly because they were always so appreciative and doted on us kids. That gave me an appreciation, at a very early age, for community service. It was something I wanted to do rather than something I was forced to do. Perhaps, that was the greatest gift I ever received at Christmas for many of those years.
Here’s wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. If you can’t be with family in person, I hope you can be there in spirit and that you can at least talk with them. 2020 will not be missed ever again. My one wish is that the lonliness of this year will be the last time I have to experience it. I am fortunate to have a wonderful spouse, kind, considerate, caring and loving. I thought that I had it all until 2020 slapped me back to reality! I am truly thankful to have a wonderful spouse and hope to be able to spend more time with our children and grandchildren in 2021!
Thank you God for sending us your Son to show us the way!
I wasn’t a Barbie girl either. I got Hot Wheels and a racetrack one Christmas! Also, a cowboy hat and pop guns and boots. I remember racing my bike around the neighborhood and skateboarding and roller skating until dusk. We were active, outdoorsy, happy kids. All the neighborhood kids played together and moms looked out for them all. It wasn’t until I found myself a single mom with five children and no support that I began to truly appreciate the blessings I grew up with. I’m very happy that my grandchildren are well cared for and know the Christmas story by heart. It makes up for all the hard times we experienced together. Merry Christmas Treepers!
Remember slot cars from the sixties?
The first ones out were much larger than following versions. The latter ones were HO scale. The cat loved the HO ones. We had to find the cat and lock it out of the basement otherwise that paw would come shooting out of nowhere and slap your Ferrari into next week.
I like dolls but I liked Matchbox cars. I had the case filled with cars. I still have them my kids laugh at the ESSO tow truck, will keep them for grandkids should I have any.. Also remember playing with Tinker Toys and Spirograph. I am enjoying Christmas, but Christmas Eve at Zoom church just isn;t the same as in person church with the candle light singing “Silent Night”.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
My biggest wish, was Chatty Cathy! Like most here, we had very little, so Chatty Cathy for me was reaching for the stars! I remember coming downstairs Christmas morning and like magic, she was there, under the silver aluminum Christmas tree that was all the rage that year.
Remember Krissy dolls with the hair that you could make long or short.? Those silver trees with the color wheel.. Yeah that lasted like a couple years at our house then it was like nope sorry back to real Christmas trees. One fad I hope doesn;t make a comeback..
I still have the key that you stuck in Krissy’s (can’t remember if it was her back, or belly) to make her hair grow when you turned it.
Paisley Turtlenecks? I must have missed out on that fad.
All MY paisley shirts had collars, and looked really nice with my corduroy pants!
Wow!! I never saw that growing up in the 60’s. I would have killed for one of those. I still have my table top ice hockey set, the type with metal men. Played that off and on all the way through college. Bet I can still kick butt today!
My brother and I both got one of these one Christmas. It was a lot of fun for a while. I have no idea what ever happened to it though. The periscope was the best part of it for me. What year was that? 63-64?
Merry Christmas everyone ⛪️??❄️????
I remember all I had was a half of a cap pistol to play with,and my friends made fun of me,I was five. We lived in Fontana,Ws. My Grandfather came about week before Christmas to visit. I was telling him about my gun and how I wanted a whole pistol. He took me up to the local toy store and bought me the Gene Autrey holster and gun set. He was a wonderful gentleman. A Very Merry Christmas everyone.
I want one! I promise I will be good.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL
Hairy canary, stunt plane. 1974.
Thank you for this post, it has me remembering Christmas past with my own kids. It has reminded me how fortunate I’ve been in my life.
Bless you all and have a very Merry Christmas!
Enjoyed reading about your experiences and the blessings given and received. Thanks for sharing. God bless you and yours. Merry Christmas!
Retired Magistrate here: My favorite Christmas present wasn’t a toy, it was the tree itself. My parents followed the German tradition of putting the tree up on Christmas Eve. My parents were older than average when I was born so all their friends would come over whose children were older and didn’t believe in Santa anymore, and visit with my parents.
As a result, just as they were finally getting to sleep I was getting up. We had an old house with pocket doors and double parlors. When I opened the pocket door, there was the 10 ft. tall Balsam Christmas tree in all its glory. This was in the late 40’s and early 50’s so the tree was decked out accordingly. I was so mesmerized by the tree that it took me a while to see what was under the tree.
My favorite gift was when I was 4 or 5; a Lionel Blue Flyer train, coal and cattle cars and caboose! My father was a traffic manager for a cement company in Portsmouth, Ohio so he shipped by train. As a result, I grew up loving trains. Also back then, no one had TV’s, you listened to the radio for Christmas programing and used your imagination. Very fond memories. Everyone have a blessed Christmas season.
Toys (and gifts in general) were not a big part of Christmas in our family. A new dress for each of the 4 girls (sewn by Mom for the Christmas program at church), new PJ’s, and perhaps a piece of Sarah Coventry jewelry from Grandma. What excited me was the stocking!! Mom made ours out of red thin-wale corduroy, one for each of 7 kids plus her and Dad. I still have mine. In the stocking we would find a huge orange, a candy cane, a stick of gum, and a tube of toothpaste.
One more important piece of Christmas – after the church Christmas program, everyone got a paper lunch bag filled with a Red Delicious apple, peanuts in the shell, chocolate-covered cremes, and a nice handful of hard candy, including ribbon candy. So many treats all at once – this was Christmas!! We learned all the old Scandinavian and German Christmas carols, and many others too.
A favorite memory: the Sunday school children rehearsed for 3 weeks before the Christmas Eve service which was primarily the children’s program. One year my youngest sister, who was 4 or 5, turned all shy and would not recite her ‘part’ during the last rehearsal. The pastor’s wife/director finally got exasperated with coaxing her and finally said, “just blow me a kiss and sit down.” She did. We practiced with her at home until she got it right.
The night of the program we showed up in our new clothes (4 sisters with new dresses from the same Simplicity pattern). My older sister and I sang Away in the manger as a duet, me on harmony. When it came time for our youngest sister to say her part, she stepped up onto the platform, looked around at the little congregation, blew a kiss and sat down. Well, that about said it all for the Christmas message.
I wish our hosts and all of you a blessed Christmas. I am asking for peace in my heart as we wade through turbulent waters. Love to all and may God bless our President and protect our beloved nation.
I was just remembering some little snippets of my childhood.
Two stand out today:
I was about three years old. Sunday school. Teacher helps me make a heart out of paper. She guides my hand to write on the heart “God is Love.” A small thing. But I remember it clearly because I understood. And I felt joy.
I was five years old. A quiet child, not very rambunctious, which is probably the reason… The sunday school children’s program included a live “manger scene.” I was to be Mary. I did my best to look at the baby doll in the manger as if it were really Jesus, and as if I were really Mary. I wouldn’t have used the word “honored” then. But honored is exactly what I felt.
Two brief memories of a little girl so long ago. Two times I recall the faith of a little child, and feel it again in my heart.
To all who read here: May your Christmas be filled with that kind of memories, and that kind of pure child-faith.
The older I get, the more magical Christmas becomes.
Sundance, I don’t comment here often, but want to wish you and yours the merriest, happiest and most joyful of Christmases this year! I think you are of an age with my hubby and me. For us as I believe for you, this year as always it’s about the joy of the kids/grandkids but also about the survival and thriving of this nation and the triumph of good over evil. I wish for this more than anything, for all of us, Dear Lord. Amen.
Secret Sam beats Tickle Me Elmo on any Christmas or any other day of the year.
Yes it does Genie and so do the two six shooters with the holster that I got when I was five years old even though I was a girl.
All of the toys we got as kids for Christmas are long gone, they were very well played with over the years.
But our Christmas memories stayed with us.
You are quite the writer! It was actually a pleasure to read your thoughts and hear your story. It was time well spent. Merry Christmas to you and yours and Suspicious Cat too.
Why, Yes, he does. He usually wraps them while snacking on that piece of pie and glass of milk your parents left for him.
Menagerie,
Another beautiful post.
Perhaps you’re a writer?
I echo your same sentiments during Christmas, and appreciate your writings, the time you take out of your life; to share with us all!
I think a book is in order!
Merry Christmas Treehouse!
Something like Secret Sam was definitely out of my price range, but I loved the spycraft too. Maybe that’s why it’s easy to analyze politicians today. I was very attached to my Captain Midnight decoder badge that I got by mailing in an application you could only get from inside the lid of a jar of Ovaltine.
It had two concentric rings, numbered 1-26 on the outside and A-Z on the inner circle. In order to get the latest coded message, one had to listen to the Captain Midnight show and they would give a combo, like 3L, and once that was set you could read off the letters below the numbers in the message. Just like one wheel of an Enigma Machine.
 
It’s Christmas Day here in Australia.
Merry Christmas to all my Treeper cousins
Love back to all you Aussies!
Mr. Machine. Remember like it was yesterday… 🙂
Sundance, my favorite was the “Man from Uncle” toy gun, a pistol with the big telescopic sight on top.
Used to play with it while listening to a cassette tape audio recording of the television show, my favorite was of nothing but jet engine noise!
The headline made me expect something about Carly Simon.
I grew up on a hog farm, where my parents raised “weiners” which were 6 to 8 week old “piglets” that they sold at auction to other farmers who would raise them into “bacon pigs”. Bacon pigs would then be sold to be butchered.
Since my parents had about 100 sows, they both spent a lot of time in the barn & let me & my sister raise ourselves. Needless to say, I did some things that normal parents (in the 50’s & 60’s) would spank their kids for. And, since we did not get a TV until I was about 13, I never even heard of a Secret Sam, BUT I would have loved to have one back them.
I grew up with 50’s/60’s boys toys, which consisted of “Battery-operated Space Fighters, Metal Friction Motor Metal Cars of all sizes & Cap Guns galore!
In the early 60’s, I discovered “firecrackers”, and we were able to get all kinds that are now banned. And, when I turned 10, I got my first BB gun, then pellet guns followed & then I got my first 22!
A couple things that I will never forget:
Around age 8, I was “feeding a large metal friction motor car” thru my mother’s wringer-washer rollers, watching it get crushed front to back, when I realized that my fingers (which were under the car) had been caught into the rollers! I panicked, because I didn’t want my thumb (on top) to be broken off, so I “reversed” the rollers to back my fingers out! I ended up splitting the sides of my fingers to where they bled! Thinking about it later, I should have just hit the Emergency Release Bar on top, but I learned something from this.
Later when I was 18, I was trying to pull the ski’s off the ground from a dead stop on my 440 snowmobile & the throttle stuck wide-open because the cable was frayed! Panic time again…should I just dump it over & risk broken bones…Sh*t, this things got a kill switch…hit it & saved the day!
And, later in life when I was in my mid 20’s, I was racing a car back to town (in my modified Weber-Carbed Triumph), had floored-it & pulled out to pass, when the frayed-throttle cable thing hit again! This time I had the common-sense to just shut the key off & coast to the side of the road!
Then there was the time I had just clamped a live 22 LG Shell in my father’s shed workshop vise & had a 4″ nail & a hammer ready to strike the base of the shell! Common Sense, along with the beating I would have got from my father, prevented me from actually doing this.
AND, I turned out to be the good sibling!
What’s the ‘bad’ sibling like?
lol
Well, I was in the family will before I went to Phoenix AZ in 96′ & after I was there for a few months, my sister stopped answering my calls back home to my parents & her!
Had to call my parents neighbor to find out that she had placed both my parents in a “waiting facility for a nursing home” AND she had gotten back together with her “cheating husband” (she was pregnant when they separated) & her & her husband & their newborn son were living in my parent’s house! Long story short, she pressured them into “selling” their house to her for cheap & I got nothing out of the will!
Ironically, she is still an Investment Advisor at the same Bank that re-pod their house back in 96′, & they had to take a $80,000 loss in equity, because my sister could not afford the payments working P/T, after my BIL stopped sending his pay checks to my sister!
BUT, I just know that I will be getting a pleasant surprise one of these days when I get whatever my half of the estate was worth + interest compounded annually over 23+ yrs. in a lump sum, from my ever-loving sister who is 65 now & going to be retiring soon!
That’s why I say that I am the “good sibling”, because I am not a Liberal Loon like my sister!
That’s 22 LR, & I forgot to mention something:
When my parents got me the 22, my mother told me to “shoot the birds that were eating her cherries off the cherry trees”! I must of killed over a 100 birds that summer & was pleased that I could help mum out.
Turns out that MOST of the birds I killed were Robins (their red breasts made great targets to aim at) & when word got out that Martha was telling her kid to shoot Robins, my mother was “as popular as Porky Pig at a Barvitzma”! But she didn’t care, because the Robins were eating her cherries & they deserved to die!
That’s a BB Gun, not a 22! A 22 would scare the birds that were eating mom’s cherries!
AND, I have no excuse, since I quit drinking over 15 yrs. ago. Must be all the Election Fraud BS still on my mind.
My first motorcycle was a 1980 Kawasaki 440. I was in Augusta GA in 1980 on the 4th and it was over 100 F. My bike wouldn’t start and no kick starter. I rolled it down a continuous 1/2 mile long hill, popping the clutch every 100 feet or so with the key on. It wouldn’t start. The bike weighed about 425 lbs and I pushed it, myself, all the way back up this hill. When I get to the very top of the hill I notice the kill switch is on.
You must have been a strong kid back then! Great Memories EH!
I once thought that hitting a cherry bomb with a hammer (to see what was inside) was a good idea.
it wasn’t. I couldn’t hear for three days, but I didn’t lose my eyesight.
Things we do when we were kids! LOL! I probably would have shot my foot, when I had the 22 LR Shell in the vise, because I would not be thinking about “standing back from the vise”, IF I had hit it with the hammer & nail!
I never really have asked for anything for Christmas. I just got whatever my parents gave us or were able to afford. This is the very first year (I am in my 60’s) i am praying for a gift! All I want is another 4 years of Trump Presidency. Treepers keep up the faith.
I grew up outside this country , so I’m amazed at the inventiveness of those toys in the 60’s ! My best toy growing up was mini stove amd grocery store ‘ade in China ! Oh well !
However my husband who grew up here remembers this :
“ the Fuzzy Wuzzy Bear soap !”
Here was the winning toy every parent loved to cross off the Santa list ! No problem getting them to take a bath with this !
I had an Ella and Andy Baby Mouse Tree House. By Remco. About 15 years ago my husband won one for me on Ebay – a Valentines Day wish of mine. Most Christmas’s I decorate it with a tiny lighted tree, tiny The Night Before Christmas book, tiny red and green construction paper garland, tiny wrapped gifts. And then I tuck the little mice into their bunks.
Sure, it’s silly, but I get such a kick out of it. Merry Christmas everyone!
My most anticipated Christmas toy turned into disaster. Shortly after getting my very own Robot Commando ,,,
https://www.vidoevo.com/video/REpGemk2cWuRpR3g3U0E/robot-mando-ideal-toys-1959
I discovered that I could replace the ping pong ball projectiles with large marbles.
The carnage in the living room – including dad’s exquisite Cutty Sark model – was a lesson that remains with me to this day.
Acquisition of technology in advance of wisdom is a very dangerous thing indeed.
Sigh.
Merry Christmas to all!
This is beautiful. You have wonderful gift of writing. I am a grandmother with the same feelings hope prayers and thankful for all blessings from my Father in heaven. Our quiver is full and now on to the great grands. I will say my grands got the best of me.. and they all know it. Granddaddy & MamaJan are over the top with our little Charlotte! We keep her whenever my granddaughter needs me. Charlotte 5 months makes my day. If she wants to rock we rock ❤️ Merry Christmas to you and yours! Thank you for sharing your beautiful unique talent.