That said, some of those fondest times often involved the Christmas holidays. I recently watched the tape of those home movies, which my dad and I transferred to VHS along with some interesting muzak 27 years ago. Yes, there is nothing quite like watching your youngest days with an instrumental rendition of "California Girls" ENHANCING the moment. As a kid I always looked forward to seeing the reels we had, mainly to see myself, but this past viewing showed me who the home movies were truly all about: my sister Kristin. The timeframe of those films was roughly from early 1970 to mid 1982, so we see her grow from less than a year old to almost 13. It was a bit of an emotional viewing, but in a good way. My sister and I have had trouble connecting with each other throughout our lives, just different personalities made for some clashes, and we went through a period of not speaking for a bit. I am very glad things are good again, and I will move from there.
Some other things in those movies Christmas-wise show some idea of what gifts were given throughout the years for Christmas. I wish I could remember to those earliest days, for I received some really nice and imaginative presents as a kid. There were some electronics to be sure, but not an overwhelming amount. For reasons of decency, I will leave out the clothes, particularly Mrs. Claus's underwear and sock fetish.
1978- This is quite frankly the earliest I can remember, as I was 6 at the time. We were in Michigan. What I distinctly remember from this is via an audio recording my grandfather made to send to my aunt in California. This was the Christmas of jigsaw puzzles and a new set of Legos...and apparently a wristwatch I remember nothing about. Today, in 2019, I am still working on a 2000 piece puzzle I got for my birthday.
1979- For some reason, I can remember some of this one even without an audio aid. I think it is because we had the road trip from hell getting from North Carolina to Michigan. Three big presents I remember here are a Viewmaster that had an audio track. The next was a small Lionel train set called the Midnight Flyer...my dad was igniting my train interest at that time. On the last big one, I cannot be sure if it was for Christmas or my birthday, but sometime that year I got a Merlin.
For anyone who does not remember this device, it was red and easily fit in the palm of your hand. There were 11 buttons that had red lights, and could play programmed music...Tic Tac Toe...Magic Square...Blackjack, Echo (like Simon), and Mindbender (like Mastermind). The audio effects were cool and made gameplay almost eternal....well, at least until the 6 AA's went dead.
1980- For some strange reason, I cannot remember this Christmas well...apart from the fact that it was the final Christmas in Michigan. The one gift I do remember is a Star Wars board game involving the death star attack.
1981- Our first home Christmas. More than presents, I distictly remember two traditions beginning this year. One, having a real Christmas tree. Two, our Christmas Eve gathering with the Kirkners. Present-wise, I remember a bike and the book and record set of The Empire Strikes Back. It may sound hokey, but since the advent of ownable movies was not quite there, we Star Wars fans had to rely on these for the music and sound effects when the movies weren't being rerun. I also got the soundtrack from the movie on vinyl...I do believe my family was plotting my murder over the next year from hearing the songs over and over.
1982- My relatively electronic-free life was now over...the big present for me was an Atari 2600! Even better in a way was that we got a Scottish Terrier whom we named Mac (short for MacTavish).
1983- No real memories apart from Jungle Hunt for the Atari...and I believe the Return of the Jedi soundtrack. My life revolved around the Atari and Star Wars in those days....amazing I didn't get laid until later than others!
1984- nothing solid here.
1985- Ah, now my gaming experience was going to get even better. I received a Commodore 64 computer! What made this perfect was that my dad had access at work to a vast array of games on floppy disc. For a while, the computer was in the family room, but sometime in the next year it made its way to my room. Aside from gaming, it also became my writing portal via an old outdated program called Bank Street Writer (pre-MS Word glory). The whole setup was perfect, well almost perfect...the dot matrix printer completely sucked ass.
1986- nope, no big memories
1987- A big computer desk that at first looked like a big deal to put together, but in my adult years I've put together many like it. Some games, some music tapes...and my parents being away for the Rose Bowl was a glorious prospect.
1988- A decent weight set is what I remember ,but I didn't get that much use out of it. Probably would have been better the previous year when I was in weight class for PE.
1989- Nothing comes to mind
1990- A sad one in retrospect. I was all ready to go on a trip to London with a lot of my Wilson classmates, and I received a nice luggage set for it. A month or so later, the trip was canceled due to the Gulf War and possible terrorist reprisals around the world.
1991- This one was bittersweet because it was our last Christmas in Pennsylvania. My dad had accepted a job in San Diego. The only present I remember getting was a small portable TV (so I could watch Wapner at 5 wherever I was). I spent most of the break from college with friends since I didn't know when I'd see them again.
1992- Our first in California. I remember being sick, and also hanging with our new Finnish family members (my aunt had remarried that year) on Christmas Eve. Two big presents I remember are a shortwave radio and the aforementioned home movies on VHS.
1993- Months before, I had sung, "All I want for Christmas is a trip to PA." That was pretty much it. Well, I also had gotten the radio dramas to "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back" by request.
The trip itself was fun, I got to see the people I wanted to see and enjoyed catching up. The New Year's Eve party at Rick Klingaman's house was the highlight. I even got to stay an extra day due to an eastern seaboard snowstorm blocking any travel.
1994- Nothing solid here, though it is notable that it was the final one with my parents together. It would shatter my idea of a family Christmas until I got one of my own. To tell the truth, this is probably a good place to end the timeline.
Not that I haven't enjoyed Christmas for 25 years, but my enjoyment of it as a youth was truly over...and that is not a bad thing. The next several (11 to be exact) Christmases were spent traveling to San Diego and spending time with both parents. Not an easy era, and there were a few arguments with one parent or another over the percentage of time I spent with each.
As a husband and later father, I've been able to enjoy the Christmas that we wanted to have. A few times we have gone to San Diego, but being home is the best present of all! Now leave me alone, I'm on my Merlin!
1978- This is quite frankly the earliest I can remember, as I was 6 at the time. We were in Michigan. What I distinctly remember from this is via an audio recording my grandfather made to send to my aunt in California. This was the Christmas of jigsaw puzzles and a new set of Legos...and apparently a wristwatch I remember nothing about. Today, in 2019, I am still working on a 2000 piece puzzle I got for my birthday.
1979- For some reason, I can remember some of this one even without an audio aid. I think it is because we had the road trip from hell getting from North Carolina to Michigan. Three big presents I remember here are a Viewmaster that had an audio track. The next was a small Lionel train set called the Midnight Flyer...my dad was igniting my train interest at that time. On the last big one, I cannot be sure if it was for Christmas or my birthday, but sometime that year I got a Merlin.
For anyone who does not remember this device, it was red and easily fit in the palm of your hand. There were 11 buttons that had red lights, and could play programmed music...Tic Tac Toe...Magic Square...Blackjack, Echo (like Simon), and Mindbender (like Mastermind). The audio effects were cool and made gameplay almost eternal....well, at least until the 6 AA's went dead.
1980- For some strange reason, I cannot remember this Christmas well...apart from the fact that it was the final Christmas in Michigan. The one gift I do remember is a Star Wars board game involving the death star attack.
1981- Our first home Christmas. More than presents, I distictly remember two traditions beginning this year. One, having a real Christmas tree. Two, our Christmas Eve gathering with the Kirkners. Present-wise, I remember a bike and the book and record set of The Empire Strikes Back. It may sound hokey, but since the advent of ownable movies was not quite there, we Star Wars fans had to rely on these for the music and sound effects when the movies weren't being rerun. I also got the soundtrack from the movie on vinyl...I do believe my family was plotting my murder over the next year from hearing the songs over and over.
1982- My relatively electronic-free life was now over...the big present for me was an Atari 2600! Even better in a way was that we got a Scottish Terrier whom we named Mac (short for MacTavish).
1983- No real memories apart from Jungle Hunt for the Atari...and I believe the Return of the Jedi soundtrack. My life revolved around the Atari and Star Wars in those days....amazing I didn't get laid until later than others!
1984- nothing solid here.
1985- Ah, now my gaming experience was going to get even better. I received a Commodore 64 computer! What made this perfect was that my dad had access at work to a vast array of games on floppy disc. For a while, the computer was in the family room, but sometime in the next year it made its way to my room. Aside from gaming, it also became my writing portal via an old outdated program called Bank Street Writer (pre-MS Word glory). The whole setup was perfect, well almost perfect...the dot matrix printer completely sucked ass.
1986- nope, no big memories
1987- A big computer desk that at first looked like a big deal to put together, but in my adult years I've put together many like it. Some games, some music tapes...and my parents being away for the Rose Bowl was a glorious prospect.
1988- A decent weight set is what I remember ,but I didn't get that much use out of it. Probably would have been better the previous year when I was in weight class for PE.
1989- Nothing comes to mind
1990- A sad one in retrospect. I was all ready to go on a trip to London with a lot of my Wilson classmates, and I received a nice luggage set for it. A month or so later, the trip was canceled due to the Gulf War and possible terrorist reprisals around the world.
1991- This one was bittersweet because it was our last Christmas in Pennsylvania. My dad had accepted a job in San Diego. The only present I remember getting was a small portable TV (so I could watch Wapner at 5 wherever I was). I spent most of the break from college with friends since I didn't know when I'd see them again.
1992- Our first in California. I remember being sick, and also hanging with our new Finnish family members (my aunt had remarried that year) on Christmas Eve. Two big presents I remember are a shortwave radio and the aforementioned home movies on VHS.
1993- Months before, I had sung, "All I want for Christmas is a trip to PA." That was pretty much it. Well, I also had gotten the radio dramas to "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back" by request.
The trip itself was fun, I got to see the people I wanted to see and enjoyed catching up. The New Year's Eve party at Rick Klingaman's house was the highlight. I even got to stay an extra day due to an eastern seaboard snowstorm blocking any travel.
1994- Nothing solid here, though it is notable that it was the final one with my parents together. It would shatter my idea of a family Christmas until I got one of my own. To tell the truth, this is probably a good place to end the timeline.
Not that I haven't enjoyed Christmas for 25 years, but my enjoyment of it as a youth was truly over...and that is not a bad thing. The next several (11 to be exact) Christmases were spent traveling to San Diego and spending time with both parents. Not an easy era, and there were a few arguments with one parent or another over the percentage of time I spent with each.
As a husband and later father, I've been able to enjoy the Christmas that we wanted to have. A few times we have gone to San Diego, but being home is the best present of all! Now leave me alone, I'm on my Merlin!
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