The Best Christmas Gift Ever

For me it was finding the complete works of the Grimm Brothers while I was in 3rd grade, sitting in a forgotten corner of the library and broken down into about 6 stories per book...an entire shelf!

They weren't kids books, and the teachers didn't have a clue.

I had many of them, but I beleive the best I had, I also posted here.

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/12567/DIY-Peddle-Tractors

It was when an effort was made in giving.

provocative thread....I don't think I have just one.

About 1956, my maternal Grandpa gave our family a Compton's Encyclopedia. Even at the age of 7, I really got into it.

For me... it was the "Hardy Boys" series... never stopped after that.

For me it was when I was about 6 0r 7 years old. Came down in the morning and there was a package wrapped in red underlayment paper. Inside was a couple of 2x4x2' and a 2x6x3'. Asked my father what it was and he said we should go down to the workshop in the basement to find out. I spec'd them and he cut them. My first set of home designed kids blocks for me. Still have a couple of them for sentimental reasons. Best gift Santa ever gave me.

Good Luck, Old Salt

It must have been around 1949-50, when I got a "steam roller" that was hand made by my dad. Two soup cans and some ingenious wood working, a little paint, and I was one happy kid. We didn't have much back then but what we did have, was greatly appreciated and loved!

When young, I seen this today also, is when a big Christmas present comes in a big box. More fun is had playing with a big empty box.

My impatience resulted in being told to find something to read and was handed a volume of Chauser, where I discovered the millers tale, and continued to read while everybody arrived and opened gifts.

Tom Swift and Tom Swift Jr., Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet.

Mine is a little bit odd. When I learned physics and had read the all time best seller book of the world to find inspiration and resolve, i took it literaly as all true, and there comes a time i found physics in the book, it became more interesting, there is quite a lot of revelation in science, mathematics and logic in the book. Knowing the mind of God is reading his word, I say. There is but one solution conveyed in the book that science could not give to summarize, it's the animal inside of man. I so too agree, even if how clever we are to find solutions for real problems we have in the society, the real root cause of our problem really is inside of us. Some of you may not agree, but that's all right, we do have different opinions and insights. This is my side of the story. It keeps me going and going.

There is cloning, relativity, genesis, perfection, infinite, wisdom and overwhelming mystery in there.

Certainly, God did not play dice with the universe.

Focusing on books rather than on Christmas gifts...

I went inside a small bookstore with my mom and browsed around while she bought school supplies. I was on the lookout for Peanuts books (by Charles Schultz) when a different book caught my eye. It was Jules Vernes' Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The cover showed a submarine (the Nautilus) on the sea floor with people wearing diving suits and walking away from the submarine. I have no idea why it interested me but I asked my mom to buy it.

I've been hooked on science fiction ever since.

regards,

Vulcan

I was born in NYC which at the time I started school, CA1950, had a 'progressive' school system. I was bored silly and stayed that way until I moved to Jersey city, NJ at the start of the 2nd grade. Boy! what a difference! They actually expected a kid to learn! Once I caught on to reading, I worked my way through the grade reader (and no Dick and Jane) and haven't looked back since. By the time I hit my teens I'd worked my way through the local library's juvenile section and was well into the adult fiction. I still read and my own library is well over 1,000 volumes comprised of both fiction and research materials on a wide assortment of topics.