I recently walked around the park and asked my fellow Creekers if there was a particular Christmas present that they remembered from their past. The answers were joyous, fun and brought back lots of great memories. When people mentioned specific toys, I tried to look them up online out of curiosity. The prices have increased considerably.
For me, my first really memorable Christmas present was a bright shiny red fire truck. I must have been 4 or 5 at the time and I remember playing with it for hours on end. The ladder had some kind of string or something on it and I had fun using the little cranker to raise and lower it. I put out a lot of imaginary fires on top of the TV that year.
My wife Colleen reports that her mom took a shoebox and made it into a crib with a handmade blanket for it. Then her mom went to the five and dime and bought a little doll for it. She also fondly remembers getting real shoe skates one year. (She had the clip over your shoe skates before that.) She thought she died and went to heaven.
Barb remembers getting a white wooden toy bunk bed set for Christmas. Her parents ordered it out of the Spiegel catalog and she loved to put her Chatty Cathy dolls in them. One year, her sister tried to put their baby sister on the top bunk, it got crushed and needless to say, that was the end of the toy bunk beds.
Brenda One year for Christmas she got a fabulous book about the American Indians. She had been told that she had some Indian blood and she found it was fun to study all about their culture. She got it when she was 16 and still has it today.
Connie lived in foster care and her foster parents gave her a really cool doll house. It was huge and had 6 rooms. Years later Connie bought her kids the Barbie Dream House.
Jim remembers getting a 6 Million Dollar Man board game. He told his parents that’s all he wanted and that’s what they got him. He remembered seeing ads for it on TV.
Bill said that his parents gave him a Mighty Matilda aircraft carrier one year. It was 3 feet long and could launch plastic airplanes. It was very impressive. He wishes he still had it!
Sheila loved getting her Thumbelina doll for Christmas which was popular at the time. She remembers hearing the song about it on TV and singing right along.
Bridget had a favorite uncle that lived next door who worked for the county. One year Santa gave her a big orange dump truck that she cherished. It was just like the one the uncle drove.
Carol When she was 10 and her brother John was 6, they got a Boston Terrier puppy. They named her Ginger and they had her for many many years. What a perfect Christmas present.
May you and yours have the merriest Christmas ever!
MEET THE AUTHOR ✍️
Fellow Whisper Creeker Greg Stangl comes to us from the great state of Wisconsin. He and his wife Colleen spend summers on Lake Wisconsin and enjoy the leisurely winter months here in our little paradise together with their beautiful Springer Spaniels Isabella Rosalini and Sophia Loren.
Greg is a professional photographer, speaker and writer who not only owned a photography studio for 40 years, but also taught college courses and lectured on the subject in 35 states and 7 countries.
Greg’s other passion is writing. He has published works in 10 national magazines and also authored workbooks employed in photography and marketing. Whisper Creeker News is both honored and excited for Greg to share his creative writing talents with us as well!
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