I've got a little story for you today, reader, and I want to hear yours. Here we go...
If my old diaries weren't packed away in a storage unit right now, I'd rummage through those tattered volumes to tell you the exact day and year I poked a tiny hole in the wrapping paper on that one particular gift well before Christmas.
Since I can't be certain of the date, I'm going to guess it was a day in early December 1978 (when I was eight.) What I am sure of, though, was the way my heart hammered as I did it, strands of hair tacky with sap from sticking my head so far under the tree to retrieve the package. I had a good idea of what was coming to me from Mom and Dad, but this gift—from an aunt and uncle—could've been anything.
I tossed a glance over each shoulder to ensure my privacy and slit the paper on the box's corner with a fingernail. In that small incision I glimpsed enough to know everything: I was getting the Quiz Kid, a handheld calculator (back when saying “handheld” was a selling point.)
The preview of the gift neither dampened my anticipation of it nor the glee playing with it later. The math gadget had one function, I learned; it would simply reveal if a person was right or wrong. For example, a child could type in 2 + 4 = 6 and get a green light or type in 2 + 5 = 6 and get red. All the work fell on the kid to create the problem (it performed addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), plug in the answer, and the machine did its singular task. What fun!
I returned to school after winter break to learn a friend had gotten The Little Professor, a math calculator from Texas Instruments, doing my Quiz Kid one better. Her device could actually produce the math problem before requiring an answer. If a person got the question wrong, it would display “EEE” and allow the user a second try.
They say comparison is the thief of joy, but even though my friend probably had the more sophisticated product, my joy was untouchable. Oh, my dear Quiz Kid, I’ll never forget you.
Now it’s your turn. Do you have a fun childhood gift memory?
To have the story of your memory published in my blog next week, submit it HERE by December 8, 2021. Subscribers, simply hit reply to this email. (Please include your CITY and STATE with your submission. And if you have a photo, I’ll run it with your story.)
*Names in this blog have been changed to protect my family and friends in the neighborhood, and in a nod of appreciation to the beloved Swedish author Maj Lindman, I’ve renamed my three blondies Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka.