Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

One of the best Christmases for me was the one when I got my first folk guitar. I thought I was getting it the Christmas before but it didn’t happen.

I remember the months leading up to Christmas Day 1964. After The Beatles song, I Want To Hold Your Hand started saturating U.S. airwaves in December 1963, my transistor radio remained glued to my ear. At night it was under my pillow. That song and others by The Four Seasons, The Beach Boys, and The Dave Clark Five literally changed my life. I wanted to be a musician!

I asked my parents for a guitar for Christmas. Then, on February 4, 1964, The Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show and from that moment I became absolutely obsessed. How could I be the next Paul McCartney without a guitar? I drove my parents crazy asking, and I finally got that guitar for Christmas 1964. They bought it from Butler Music Store in Davis Square for 22 bucks. Best gift ever.

“When I was a kid, we had real toys,” said many an older person, like me.

Remember when our parents asked us what we wanted Santa to bring us for Christmas? We made a list, but we were hoping to get that one special toy. Mine was that little folk guitar.

The best Christmas gifts ever for some of my friends still hold a warm place in their hearts.

Under the tree was a Toodles Doll and baby carriage, Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots and Betsie Wetsie doll.

There were race car sets, cassette tape recorders and phonographs. Kids got the Playmobile toy car dashboard, Kenner Erector Sets, and Easy Bake Ovens. A mini-bike? (Dave Stef was one lucky kid!) Who wouldn’t love a toy cannon, ice skates, a Flexible Flyer sled and a walking, robot called Mr Machine ? The big dude with jolly laugh brought hockey gear, microscopes, a Hot Wheels set with a loop de loop track, GI Joes and glittery, lace-up roller skates.

We delighted at Barbie Campers, Tonka Trucks that were built better than some of today’s cars, and a really cool Polaroid Swinger instant camera. I remember blackmailing family members with unflattering photos! Some lucky kids got new bicycles! Cool! How about a handmade Pinocchio marionette and a ventriloquist dummy?

After visions of sugar plums danced in our heads, Baby Boomer kids and younger received Chatty Cathy dolls that talked (with the same few phrases over and over). There were Partridge Family and other Rock’n Roll LPs, drum sets, and earplugs for mom and dad!

Before man buns and condos, before cell phones and iPads, and before video games and NetFlix, there were toys. They came from Lechmere Sales, Sears Roebuck, Child World, and if it was slightly scorched or smelled like a campfire, it came from The Bargain Center in Davis Square.

Some of these special gifts still exist today in our cellars and attics. We may not all keep them on a shelf in their bedroom (like me), but we know where they are. And even if they broke or disappeared long ago, the memories of our special gifts from those magical Christmases past will forever make us smile.