A CHRISTMAS MEMORY

A Christmas Memory

     Dear Readers:  This is a reprise of a column I first published in 1996. I hope it will help remind you of your favorite Christmas past.

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     Allow me to reminisce a little. This the story of my 7th Christmas---way back in the fifties. If you remember those days, you surely recall how little money most families had. Many presents were homemade, and toys weren’t nearly as complex, high-tech and expensive as they are now. We probably would be considered poor by today’s standards—-we just didn’t know it, because everyone else was in the same boat.       

     I was quite a little train guy back then (still am, actually, and never miss a chance to stop at a crossing as one of those big coal trains rumbles by). I still have a black and white picture of little-me sitting on a boulder and holding up a late 40’s (and well-thumbed) Lionel train catalog. Those gorgeous train sets were perhaps $40 or so, and therefore achingly out of our family’s price range (or so I thought).        

     Anyway, my Dad had a self-contained workshop--a shed, really--detached from the house. And for weeks starting before Thanksgiving, I was “discouraged” from visiting him when he went in there after work, even to notify him that supper was ready, as I usually had done. When you’re seven, Christmas always seems so far away--so I missed the connection between the coming holiday and the secret taking shape behind those locked doors.

     And then came Christmas morning. We stumbled down the stairs before the sun came up--and there, just barely visible in the glow of the tree lights, was a 4' X 8' piece of plywood covered with artificial grass, trees, dirt, streets and small buildings and---you guessed it--a TRAIN SET! It was the same 3-rail, Lionel, .027 gauge set I had been drooling over for a couple of years--with an engine that really smoked (you had to add a little pill to the smoke stack); plus a station with a whistle inside; and a real log car that actually dumped its load; and other wonderful features which escape me now.

     At any rate, it was the first time I realized how really clever my Dad was. To think, he'd actually done the framing, wiring, track-laying, scenery and painting all by himself, without any prior indication that he knew anything about model trains. Also, I'm astounded now to think that the whole project might have cost around $50 or so, which was about a week's pay in those days!

     This one event, more than any other, led me to an early and lifelong appreciation that using tools and making and repairing things is decidedly satisfying. I went on to learn how to solder a pipe and wire a switch by the time I was about 10 years old. It's easy when you've got a good teacher, and you could be just that person in your family. It’s also a great way to soak up idle hours and to peel the kids away from those wretched electronic gadgets. Plus, I defy you to find elsewhere the kind of fulfillment you get from standing back and admiring your latest workbench project or repair, no matter how small. So parents, do you need one more gift? Buy an age-appropriate tool box set, and use it, along with some of your time, to show the dear children in your life--both boys and girls---how to become little DIY-ers.   

     And, by the way, my holiday wish for you is that one day the little ones in your life may have at least one Christmas memory as precious as mine.