Best Gift Ever

The Film Geek's post about his best Christmas gift ever brought back memories of the cassette tape recorder. That was his favorite gift, ever. A few of his friends and readers commented that it had been their favorite gift, too. I never got one. I didn't understand the buttons on the machine, what rewind, fast forward and play meant. Most of the ones I saw didn't say fast forward or stop or rewind; they just had symbols, and you just had to already know what they meant. Someone who was in my class and rode my bus and had the same bus stop as I did, pretty much all the way through grade school, made fun of me for not knowing. She had all the cool gifts, always. She always brought something shiny and new to school. Once she gave me a ride around the park on her moped. It was pretty exciting. I think I was in the fifth or sixth grade. (I wonder where she is now? Where are you, Natasha?) When I was about 10 my mom got a cassette tape player/recorder for herself, when they finally went on sale. I borrowed it. I did record from the radio onto blank tapes. I would tape myself being a radio DJ in between songs, introducing them and making DJ-like comments. That was pretty fun.
When I think back to what my best Christmas gift ever was, I draw a blank. I think about different stuff I asked for but didn't get. Like the $100 Barbie Dream House I asked for every year, for about five years, but never got (I bought one at the thrift store about seven years ago for about $15 for my kids and they never really played with it. I finally donated it back to the same store about three years ago). I think of the Christmas I was in seventh grade, when my mom was in graduate school and my sister and I received, including the stuff in the stocking, a sweatshirt with matching sweatpants, earrings, an orange and perfume. No, it wasn't perfume, actually -- it was a large stocking stuffer bottle of Jean Nate "after-bath splash." (I can't believe it's still available for purchase. Now they call it "a classic.") Good-old "after-bath splash" filled up most of the stocking. If you want to buy it now, I believe you can purchase a large bottle of it for $9.95. There was only room for a pair of earrings in there after you added the orange, to fill up the toe.
I know that the Santa in my house was being very practical, sensible and smart. I know there wasn't much to go around. I just wish that the Christmas holidays didn't have a way of setting everyone up for excitement and lavishment, leaving people bitterly disappointed and let down after all the anticipation.
Best Christmas gift ever? I'm still thinking. I guess the best gift from Santa was the lesson not to be materialistic, not to get my hopes up. That was pretty good.