My Christmas gift
Adults' division - 2nd place
My story takes me back many years. The year was 1932. I was 7 years old. It was the Depression and those years were very hard on everyone, especially families.
Back
It was Christmas and I, along with my three sisters, didn't expect much under the tree that year. Four of us kids and Mom and Dad, we had a lot of love and togetherness, but life was hard on my parents. Dad was out of work more than he should have been.
Weather drawing by Jamie Wallace in Mr. Meyer's fourth-grade class at Lowell Elementary School in Brainerd.
We had a tree, a tree Dad purchased for 25 cents on Christmas Eve. It was a beautiful real tree and that was wonderful. We kids strung popcorn and cranberries, a few balls and tinsel icicles.
Christmas morning came and I opened my present and I was excited. It was two or three yards of maroon print, rayon fabric - just enough for a pretty dress - and I really thought that was special. My mom was going to make me a new dress!
Weather drawing by Jamie Wallace in Mr. Meyer's fourth-grade class at Lowell Elementary School in Brainerd.
Christmas Day had come and gone and we kids had to go back to school. It was customary to bring at least one Christmas gift to school on the first day after vacation.
I left the house without anything to show. Some of the girls would have their Shirley Temple dolls and they wouldn't be interested in a "piece of goods," as we called fabric in those days. But as I went out the back door and through the back yard past the trash can by the garage, I spied a little mechanical bird perched on top of the can. It was shiny and painted with bright colors.
I looked at it, picked it up and wound the spring. It worked! I put it in my pocket and hurried off to school. "This will be my toy Christmas present," I said to myself.
When it came my turn to show "my gift" I proudly walked to the front of the class, wound the spring and let my little bird dance.
My parents never talked about guardian angels to my sisters and I when we were youngsters, so at the time I didn't question how the bird got where I found it.
I truly believe in a force greater than human existence and every one of us has a guardian angel somewhere.
NOTE: At the time I lived at 3622 Humboldt Ave. N. in Minneapolis. I attended McKinley Elementary School (the school is no longer at 37th and Colfax North). The red limestone building was torn down and a housing project was built where this once proud school stood.