Christmas 1981: I wanted Dukes Of Hazard toys specifically this ramp and shoot em car combo set. I also wanted Key Cars which was a plastic car in which you fit a key in the back, turn it and shoot it across the floor. Lastly I remember wanting Gas Guzzlers. These were larger scale “model type” cars which came with a little gas can and you filled it up with water and pour it into the car and with the help of one 9V battery and the turning of the tuning screw, the car would drive across the floor pouring water along the way. I received all of these gifts and many others but lastly I had doubt over one item, an Atari 2600. Surprisingly, I received this too as my last secret gift when we were all done opening gifts, my mom, grandma and myself. I also received a few games: Chopper Command, Haunted House and Video Checkers.

We were a middle-upper class household in 1981. My grandfather died earlier in the year when we lived in Yonkers, NY and we had moved to Fishkill, NY that late June of ‘81. My grandmother bought our home straight out in cash for 80k. Our home was average in the neighborhood as there were a few mini mansions. We never knew or appreciated how good that we had it when we were younger. Not every childhood was perfect, mine was far from that but I slept soundly every night knowing we had plenty of food in the house, we were never cold in the winter but grandma made us use electric fans to cool off until ‘91 when her furnace was ancient and she replaced it with a heating/cooling combo. That was also the year that grandma signed up for cable TV. Starting in ‘86, some of our TV stations out of New York and New Jersey would have static times of day in sound and sometimes video also. Grandma endured many years but when her favorite shows and nightly news programs were constantly interrupted it was time for cable! I was the second to the last kid in the neighborhood to get cable, with Sara being last. Every Christmas that arrived, we all had our list of items that we wanted to see under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning; can we remember every Christmas until we turned 18? I can but not every gift received nor the ones I gave to my mom and grandma. They’re both gone now. Grandma passed in December 2012 and mom in January 2020. Hold on to those memories for as long as you can, the good ones anyways. M.R.L