What Christmas Wish did you have that came true after sleepless nights? (Vanity)

Mine was a Red Ryder B.B. gun; I was eight and I kept pestering and pestering until my grandmother said, "Wish in one hand and spit in the other, see which one gets full first," but I was still unimpressed; I said, "The days go by so slow," she replied, "When you get to be my age, they go by so fast," I said, "Grandma, there's only 24 hours in a day, they must be the same for everybody," she looked me in the face and intoned, "Just wait, you'll see."

Well, now it is 44 Christmases past that day, and my wish is that I could tell my Grandma that she was right, but this wish won't come true.

Yet, I have the fondest memories of that seemingly simple time; I got my B.B. gun and was I ever happy; but, it took so much force to cock it that I had to rest the butt on the ground and push with all my might to compress the air; my dad patiently explained why that was so.

This year I am reminded of that time, and I wish I had the faith to once again wish for something so strongly with the same childlike expectation that my wish would be answered, so I will wish for something simple, may you all have a Merry Christmas!

That would have made a cute photo!

A 110# barbell set. That's all I wanted. Being the smallest boy in the 5th grade and coming from a relatively poor family, I got picked on a lot. If I only had those weights, I would no longer be picked on.

Well, after my parents explained how expensive my wish was ($20) and how I needed other things more, they came through! I worked out 3 times a day for years.............and no one ever picked on me again (without a fight).

That was 30 years ago, and I still have the weights. I still use them, although not three times a day. Thanks for bringing that wonderful memory back as fresh as if it were yesterday.

Freepers never cease to amaze me; that is the exact gun I had. I didn't shoot my eye out, but two years later my dad got me a used 22, bolt action Springfield Jr. rifle with a hair trigger; one Sunday, we were to have chicken for dinner, so my dad positioned me next to the chicken coop just outside the wire fence and told me to shoot this old rooster. I drew down on that lame old bird, squeezed off a round and cleanly removed both eyes; my grandmother proceeded to stink up the entire area by tossing his scrawny butt into a copper kettle that was aboil, plucking him bald, and tediously extracting his pin-feathers one at a time until I was green-sick; I couldn't eat a bite.

I still have that 22 rifle, no firing pin, and a suspect barrel (the result of my mother loaning it to her brother while I was in the USAF); it is soon to be a "wallhanger."

Merry Christmas!!!

I was a poor kid living in Brooklyn, New York many years ago. My sister and I usually got one small present for Christmas and that was okay, we had great parents who both worked hard for us. We did not complain.

One year my 9 year old buddy Artie-John Weber heard that the police were giving away toys to poor kids, you just had to go to the station and pick something up. It was wonderful. Free toys, for real.

The station was about two miles away, neither of us had any money so we began walking. It started to snow which highlighted the Christmas decorations and lights along the city streets.

The station, with the subway roaring overhead, was full of Christmas decorations and laughter. We moved along the line up to the biggest cop I had ever seen, seated above us behind the stations front desk giving out toys to about twenty kids.

I got a baseball game, operated on two batteries, it had a little bat that swung at a tiny plastic ball. If you hit the ball it would show the results of the play. Artie got an Exacto knife set which he used to make great airplane models out of wood strips, tissue paper wand-up rubberbands and a street kid's imagination. Artie and I walked home through that heavy snow storm, just unbelievably happy.

It was moments so magical that 52 years later I still remember that cold night, the Christmas lights reflected on the fallen snow, the huge smiling cop (bless him), my buddy Artie and the great toys we clutched to our P-Jackets.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.