I think I must have been about six years old back in the 1950’s, when Christmas approached and I was asked what it was I wanted for Christmas, I told them, “One of those big tin toy airplanes.” (similar to the one in the photo.) A friend of mine had one, and I was really hot to have one of my very own. I could hardly what until Christmas day to find the model airliner under the tree.
Thinking back, I wonder what it was I was going to do with it. I guess maybe hold it at the end of my moving outstretched arms, while making the sound of an engine, as I soared it around. Now, that plane sounds like it would be a very limited item of play, but at that time of my youth, that airplane was what I wanted.
When Christmas day came, I quickly wiped the sleep from my eyes as I excitedly headed for the living room and the Christmas tree, to see the model airplane. I hurriedly scanned the floor under the tree, and then scanned it again; where was the airplane? It wasn’t there. I was crushed, totally crushed.
My parents then wheeled out a shiny new bicycle out to the living room as my Christmas present. “Why are they giving me that?” I thought, I wanted an airplane. I looked at the bicycle as something totally useless. Bicycles were something totally off of my radar, none of my friends had bicycles. It was hard to hide my disappointment.
My despondency began to lessened bit by bit later during the day after calling some of my neighborhood friends, who excitedly told me they had also gotten bicycles for Christmas.
It took a while for me to see what a wonderful and amazing thing a bicycle was. My father helped me learn to ride it. At first I had to wheel the 24 inch bike beside the front porch steps, so I could stand on the first step so I could get my leg over the bicycle to the pedal on the far side, but soon I learned to do a wobbly ride, then balance, and finally successfully maneuver the bike all over our front yard.
Riding that bicycle opened up a whole new neighborhood world to me and I was always on it. It allowed me to get to my friends’ houses quickly, and really expanded the range of friends I could visit. Soon my friends and I were biking to places we never dreamed we could go on our own. I was on that bicycle just about every day.
Even now in my dotage, I still have a bicycle that I wheel out every summer to sometimes ride to town. I am so thankful that my parents went against my wishes and gave me a bicycle for Christmas instead of a tin model airliner.
View my paintings at davidmarchant2.ca
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