Christmas is now over and all the decorations are stowed away for another year. Now that the holidays are behind us, the next big thing visiting your home doesn’t come down the chimney in a red and white suit. It’s delivered to your mailbox in a plain envelope. That would be a big fat credit card balance. Or it could be two or even three.
Yep, the month of January not only brings colder weather from up north, but bills from all those Christmas presents. While I was writing the checks, it was painfully apparent exactly how expensive all those gifts Santa brought were, are, and will continue to be. That is if I only pay the minimum balance. Then they’ll actually become bills of Christmas future.
With the flag up on the mailbox, I walked back towards the house, satisfied that my payments would help keep lights on at the credit card companies for yet another month. My mind drifted, as it often does, and finally landed on a question, “Has Christmas always been this expensive?”
By the time I reached the house, not one but two things came to mind. First, money spent to find that perfect gift has indeed gotten way out of hand.
Second, it wasn’t such a good idea to only wear bedroom slippers for a quick trip outside. Even with matching housecoat, it just wasn’t a good idea.
Fashionable – yes, a good idea – no. With morning temperatures dipping to 6 degrees and the wind chill hovering near ridiculous, my clothing choice for a jaunt out to the mailbox was equally ridiculous.
As I hustled back to the warm, cozy house, I saw some neighbor kids playing. They were enjoying the cold weather with some remarkable toys that took me back to a simpler time. It was a time when my brothers, sister, and I played for hours in the cold seeming to be immune from its effects. Suddenly I realized how my parents afforded Christmas for five kids.
So how do they, and how can you curb cost of gift giving? Well, have a seat in your favorite chair and prop up your feet. It’s time for a trip to Toyland, Flamingo Street style.
Back in the day kids on Flamingo Street walked to school uphill both ways, bare foot, and in the snow. Okay, this time I’ll admit to stretching the truth a little bit, but the times we lived in were very different than today – and so were some of the toys we invented.
A refrigerator or washing machine cardboard box was an all-season toy — just get inside and start crawling. Kid-powered steamroller boxes could be seen plowing their way across vacant lots all summer. They could completely flatten a field of green briars and weeds in less than an hour.
In less than a second, said steamroller boxes could also be vacated, especially after rolling over a yellow jacket nest. Kept out of the rain, steamroller boxes could be used as sleighs to streak down an ice-covered Flamingo Street.
During the summer, we used a metal trashcan lid as a shield. It was the perfect defense against water balloon attacks from Down the Street Bully Brad. During a winter snowstorm, it worked great for deflecting snowballs, also thrown by said bully.
When we flattened the handle we had a perfect snow disk, unless, of course, we used it when Flamingo Street was covered with ice. Then it became the Disk-O-Death.
Perhaps the best toys we invented were bike noisemakers. We pinned playing cards to the frame of our bikes and as the wheels turned, the spokes hit the cards. The entire street sounded like it was full of bees. It was harmless enough fun — unless, of course, the bee sounds actually were bees because someone had rolled over another yellow jacket nest in a steamroller box.
My mom and dad allowed us to invent our own fun with the items we had on hand. We enjoyed playing with all of those treasures for hours on end, because that is the real joy of childhood – unbound creativity with endless hours spent with brothers, neighbors, and, yes, even bullies who lived down the street.
The kids in my neighborhood had reminded me of this valuable lesson I learned as a child – seems they found the big boxes used to deliver our shiny new toys and figured out how to make steamrollers just like we did.
As I watched, other kids rode past on their new bikes, and I wondered, would any of them enjoy an old-fashioned bike noisemaker like we had back on Flamingo Street?
With a deck of cards, a pocket full of clothespins and more suitable clothes on, I once again ventured out into the cold to find the answer.
It’s great being one of the neighborhood kids again. Just hope I don’t fall down and break something.
[Rick Ryckeley, who lives in Senoia, served as a firefighter for more than two decades and has been a weekly columnist since 2001. His email is storiesbyrick@gmail.com. His books are available at www.RickRyckeley.com.]
