Seems like today children don’t look forward to Christmas like we did when we were growing up. Back in those days, we only got a present twice a year – on our birthday and again at Christmas. We started waiting on our birthday the first day of January and after our birthday present was worn out, we started looking forward to Christmas and wondering what present we might get.
Dale and I were notorious for finding our Christmas presents before Christmas. About the middle of November, we would start to check all the secret hiding places to see if anything was there. After a few years of this, mother got wise to us and started leaving our presents at Aunt I.V.’s house for safe keeping. Aunt I.V.’s house was only two houses down the street from us.
One day in late November, or early December, Dale was at Aunt I.V.’s house and had to use the bathroom. The way all the houses were arranged this gave a clear view from the bathroom, across a hallway, through the kitchen into a bedroom. As Dale used the potty, he looked toward the bedroom. Lo and behold, Dale saw two items under the bed that looked like toys. When he finished his job, he immediately went to the bedroom to investigate his find.
In a few minutes Dale came to the house all excited and said, “I found them! I found our Christmas presents!” We ran back to Aunt I.V.’s; of course, there was no one at home. We pulled out two scooters and rode them for about 30 minutes. Then we put them back.
I don’t know exactly how Mother and Aunt I.V. found out about this visit to her house, but someone must have snitched on us. Aunt I.V. explained that the scooters we found were for some of Uncle Robert’s nephews and we should not be riding them.
Christmas finally arrived and Santa Claus must have had an excess of scooters that year, for Dale and I received two scooters just like the ones we had ridden earlier.
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