Once Upon a Christmas 1954 Part 3

. Oh – the glorious things we saw – shelves full of toys and household goods, glass counters with hundreds of bottles of perfume and cologne, shaving gear, tropical birds and fish and mountains and mountains of candy. What to do – what to buy? We scurried from one counter to the next, overwhelmed with the endless things to choose from as we stammered and stuttered like a couple of idiots. Finally, we decided on a bottle of ‘Lily of the Valley’ perfume and a pair of gloves for mom and ‘Old spice’ cologne and gloves for dad. We then separated to buy presents for each other agreeing to meet at the soda fountain afterwards where we decided it was only fitting we should have a banana split and a Coke to celebrate the occasion. As we sat three with our lips covered in butterscotch and ice cream, the gravity of the situation began to sink in. We had spent our entire savings and with that realization, we licked our lips and decided the bicycles would have to wait another year. Finally – it was Christmas Eve and we put the presents under the tree and hung our stockings at the foot of the bed. In a few hours, those stockings would be filled with barley toys, ribbon candy and chocolates. I could hardly wait! As mom tucked us into bed, I looked out the window and saw it was snowing again. It snowed all through the night as I lay in my cozy bed dreaming of that glorious bicycle again. --- Christmas morning we awoke to the sound of the radio; home for Christmas after a long stay at the pawn shop as ‘Joy to the World’ rang over her airwaves. We dashed to the living room where mom and dad stood beside two bicycles with gleaming chrome and multi-colored streamers; not the ones from the store window, but the most beautiful bicycles I have ever seen; a red one for me and a blue one for my brother. There I stood, my heart overflowing with joy and love as I remembered my mother’s blood stained hands and my father’s blue and red stained hands - these hands of love that changed two second-hand bicycles into the greatest gift I have ever known and taught me the true meaning of Christmas. • May the love from that Christmas of 1954 find you and fill your heart with joy. Merry Christmas To you and yours Lainie