Christmas - The Early Years

Today I thought I'd write another musical gift story to finish my trilogy (see Birthday Present/Anniversary below.) This one goes back a few years. A lot of years to be exact. We're talking about a time when albums were still handed out, and 8-tracks were still available. In fact my best friend who lived across the street from me had an 8-track player in his mom's station wagon. My first album was Hot Tracks, one of those compilation albums that featured songs like 'Mr. Roboto' and 'Don't Pay the Ferryman' among others. I actually can't remember what the others were, but there is a chance I still have the album lying at home. I just don't have anything to play it on. But back to the gift. and

Even though we're Indian, and not Christian, we celebrated Christmas. Still do today in fact. Not for the religious aspects obviously, but more for the chance to have a tree in the house and to give each other gifts. Now of course, I have to actually pay for gifts, so it's not nearly as much fun as when I was a kid and just got a lot of stuff. One tradition that hasn't made it through the years was having Christmas stockings. I never understood that tradition, but it was nice to get a couple of extra small presents in the stocking, even if every year my mother felt the need to give my sister and I popcorn balls every year. Man those were nasty. I don't even know what held the popcorn together, but it was one large sticky mess.

So earlier that year for my birthday (I say earlier that year, but my birthday is actually only 12 days before Christmas, which is the perfect amount of time to use, and get tired of, my birthday gifts before getting more stuff) my parents had stepped up into the electronics age and bought me a boombox, complete with radio and cassette deck. The only problem is, I didn't have any cassettes. I had albums and my sister's Holly Hobbie record player, but no cassettes for my cool new boombox. I was sure that for Christmas I was gonna get a cassette. I will now completely date myself by saying that at the time, the big movies at the box office that year were E.T. and Rocky III. I never really cared for E.T. but I loved Rocky III. And to this day my favorite song of all time is 'Eye of the Tiger' so I was pumped, sure that I was going to get the Rocky III Soundtrack as my first cassette. So we opened up all the gifts that were under the tree and I don't remember what I got, but there were no cassettes. I was bummed.

But then I remembered the stockings. They were big enough to hold a cassette! So ran over and grabbed them off the wall and brought them back to everyone. I eagerly reached into my stocking and immediately pulled out the first thing I could get my hand on, which turned out to be a popcorn ball. I threw it across the room and reached in and pulled out a gift wrapped small box. I shook it and I could hear the tape rattling inside. This was it! My first cassette! I ripped open the paper, ready to open the cassette and blast 'Eye of the Tiger' for the entire house. As the paper flew off, I was looking at the back of the cassette. It was red. For some reason I remember thinking, oh, that's the color of a boxing glove! I turned the cassette over and looked at what was a defining moment in my life. Everyone remembers their first piece of music, right? My first album was Hot Tracks. My first CD was the Say Anything soundtrack. My first concert was Barry Manilow. I remember all of that. And what was my first cassette? Air Supply's Greatest Hits.

I remember looking at it, completely dumbfounded. I mean, I admit that I like cheesy music, my first concert was Barry Manilow for God's sake. But even though I was a loser when it came to music, never in my life would I ever want Air Supply's Greatest Hits. I didn't even know who they were at the time! I looked at my mother who had a big smile on her face. I must have had a look on my face that said 'are you kidding me?' because her smile dimmed a little when she said 'Oh, I bought that more for me.' My first cassette and it wasn't even for me?! I was so disappointed I just handed it to her. She couldn't have put it in her own stocking? I sat there, dejected, until she said, 'wait, there's more.' I reached into the stocking and there was indeed more. Another small package, gift wrapped and sounding like a cassette. At this point I was a little gun shy, but I unwrapped it anyway. And there, staring up at me, was none other than Rocky Balboa. I got my Rocky III Soundtrack! Sadly in my memory it will always go down in history as the second cassette I ever got, but I still got it. And it's still sitting at home in my old cassette collection. Amazingly enough, so is Air Supply's Greatest Hits. Go figure.