Posted on 01/05/2010 4:30:52 PM PST by SJackson
Girl's Christmas wish disappoints Santa Claus By Joann M. Ringelstetter
Middleton
(Dane County)
It was December 1960 and I was 5 years old. My mother had taken us downtown with her so she could do her weekly grocery shopping. The usual routine consisted of Mom going into the store and us kids sitting in the car picking fights with each other. There were five of us under the age of 9, and it was a very different time than it is now.
John F. Kennedy had just defeated Richard M. Nixon to become the youngest person and the first Roman Catholic to be elected president. The civil rights movement was heating up, with demonstrators holding sit-ins at lunch counters and other public places.
The radio was playing hits from Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline and Elvis Presley. "The Andy Griffith Show" and "My Three Sons" debuted on TV that fall and westerns were extremely popular. Every week, we watched shows such as "Gunsmoke," "The Rifleman" and "Bonanza." Little Joe, the youngest Cartwright on "Bonanza," was my favorite.
It was rare for my mother to let us go into the store with her, but that day she decided we could join her. Maybe it was because it was cold out or maybe it was because she knew something we didn't. Whatever the reason, into the store we tromped in our hand-me-down winter coats and boots. Mom started shopping and as we followed her around the end of the aisle, there was Santa Claus! Wow, Santa Claus himself, right there in our grocery store!
He bent down and put his arms around me and asked, "What do you want for Christmas this year, little girl?"
Times were lean then, and we usually received one and only one gift from Santa on Christmas Day. So I knew I had to ask for the one thing I wanted most.
"I want guns," I said. "You know, two pistols in holsters, like the one Little Joe wears."
Santa looked dismayed.
"You're a little girl," he said. "You want a doll, don't you?"
"No," I insisted. "I want guns."
Then he repeated, laughing as he said it, "No, you want a doll."
Clearly, he didn't understand, and I walked away very disappointed in the man in the red suit who didn't seem to know that he was supposed to bring me what I asked for, not what he thought I should want.
When Christmas morning dawned, I rushed to the Christmas tree to survey what was lying beneath it. There were five gifts, and Santa apparently couldn't afford wrapping paper because each gift simply had a name taped to the box. And sure enough, there it was - the stupid doll Santa thought I should have. As I scanned the other gifts, I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a box with a cellophane top, and in the box were two shiny silver pistols with ivory grips in a double leather holster.
Now there was cruelty at its finest. Not only did Santa stick me with a useless doll, but he had the nerve to bring my brother the very thing I had asked him for. Just as I was sinking into the depths of despair, I realized that my name was on the box of pistols and the doll was for my little sister.
That was the best Christmas present I ever received from Santa Claus, and I never doubted his judgment again.
Middleton, probably went to a Madison Santa.
Sometimes all’s right with the world, as Jean Shepherd pointed out.
L LOVE this story - Thanks for sharing
The “Real” santa delivers..........
I remember my sister and I practically begging for a BB gun when we were kids. Never got one either but our brothers did. Well, this year for Christmas I bought a new Ruger .380 LCP from “Santa” and she bought a new Ruger .22 for plinking from “Santa”. We both own a couple of other pistols. :) Traveled to Texas over Christmas and mentioned to my Dad that we should have received those BB guns but we were making up for it now. ;)
I still have my greatist gift. A air rifle I got when I was Ten.
I don’t remember if it was for CHRISTmas or not, but I had a Fanner 50 with a leather holster and belt.
As I remember, that Fanner 50 weighed the same as a Ruger Bearcat, which I dearly wanted, but never got.
Great story!
I made a huge mistake with my son, according to my wife.
Shortly after Nov 4th '09 I decided my boy needed a 22LR, and he got that for Christmas that year.
I brought out the trusty 20 ga I've had from my youth, and we started having a fine time.
Then came the 7.62x39, then the 9mm / .380 / .40 pistols, then the .308 Saiga - that thing is a beast!, on order is the Saiga 12 ga.
Jr is for ever talking to Mom about the guns he sees in the NRA rag.
The boy talked to his neighborhood buddies, next thing ya know I have Dad's calling me, "I didn't know you were into guns - let's go shooting!"
Six dads last time, off spring in attendance.
Last outing also included my 11 yr old daughter - she went nuts, loved it!
The only reason the wife is pissed is because she knows gun = $$$$$.
I'be been working on her, she wants to go shoot..........
Life is good!
Santa still hasn’t brought me the belt-fed MG-42 or the Schmeisser MP-38 I asked for.
Boo-hoo.
I didn’t get a Fanner 50 that Christmas of 1958, but I did get a Hubley cap rifle that worked just like Lucas McCain’s in “The Rifleman”.
A year later Dad took me to the local sporting goods store (which meant GUNS!) and the clerk showed me a Ruger Bearcat. My interest in cap guns ended in an instant.
Dad then said I could have it if I earned the money to buy it. Many long years passed before I had that kind of cash and when I did, it was reserved for college expenses.
Later on I did teach several of my girlfriends how to shoot, with a handgun. The reaction was always the same, some fear until after the first shot, and then it was both fun and normal.
Holy cow! I still have my Fanner 50s! They are sitting on the shelf next to my reloading bench. I didn't realize anyone still valued them as I did... The fact that you remember them tells me at least one other person wanted one as bad as I did as a kid. Of course, I probably wouldn't have been given a matched set with a real leather double holster rig if my dad had not been such a fan of the old "B Western" movies... As far as he was concerned, the only good to come out of Hollywood rode out on horseback wearing six-shooters.
For those not "in the know", the Fanner 50 was a metal cap pistol... A revolver, more technically. It was not a downsized cheap chrome toy with a bright orange muzzle, but was instead the same size as the real Colt .45 Single Action Army revolver, with (on mine at least) a finish that looked like the Colt finish as well. It fit in a real holster. To put it in perspective: When I got mine for Christmas, the bottoms of the holsters (one on each side) reached my knees!
I guess that besides my father's teaching me a love and respect for guns, I also learned to take great care of them... So for that very reason I still have my favorite "toy" guns.
See one in action HERE
That is why every kid wanted one... About as cool as it got back then.
Regards,
Raven6
That could’ve been written by my sister. She got a pistol and holster set for Christmas when she was eight. She wore them all the time, except to school and church.
Sadly, she grew up to be an over-educated, unemployable drain on society LibTard and is totally afraid of guns today; I’m the one who asked for the doll, later joined the Army, and now owns the arsenal, LOL!
Baby Girls. You can never tell how they’ll turn out, can ya? ;)
Thanks for the reminder.
Girls...just wanna have gu-un.
I got a great cap pistol gun one Christmas. It was in a real leather holster (loved that smell) and those plastic caps really flew pretty far. There was a hole on the handle of the pistol you used to re-load your caps onto the cartidges. My favorite part was the belt buckle. Inside the belt buckle was a derringer that you pushed the button on the bottom of and it flipped out and fired. Yes, it did work! You could also detach the derringer and use it by itself. What a great Christmas toy!!
Her dad is a WWII retired USMC 06 (full Colonel) holding the Navy Cross and Silver Star. Genuine war hero with 18 air to air kills in the Pacific. She was raised around guns. Her dad bought her a .380 Beretta M84 when we married and she hated it for the low stopping power and inaccuracy. She had her greedy eyes on my beloved Remington Rand M1911A1 45acp Government model. I wasn't about to give up my beloved "Betsy." So I quick marched into a gun show and bought her a Colt Commander 45 and put tritium sights on it (we traded the .380 to help defray costs). It's been marital bliss ever since. For our first anniversary she gave me a Dillon Reloader and for our second she gave me a rifle. My BRIDE, Lord above I DO love her so!
She rarely says "NO" to gun purchases I want to make.
I never say "NO" to any purchases she wants to make. Never. Spend $1300 for a purse? Go for it baby. Life is too short. We'll figure out how to eat later. That's me. However she is the wise one and she is the one who budgets the $$$$ and pays all the bills. So she is smart enough to do things right.
I still never say "no."
Yes, I remember my Fanner ‘50, along with a Flexible Flyer sled as my most valuable (to me) childhood posessions. My very practical mother passed my cap guns on to cousins after she thought I outgrew them, but often is the time that I wish I had held onto them. I still have a couple of the shootin’ shells as mementos of those days.
I was recently looking through some old photos (late 1950’s, early 1960’s) with my grandchildren. The kids were especially interested in the Christmas photos, and of the toys that we received back then. I was amazed to find the original commercials for most of those toys on Youtube
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