The perfect present for a practical jokester
This story is a chapter from my childhood memoir that spans 1950 to 1964 when my parents, Bill and Anne Haug, owned a bar on Bigfork’s Electric Avenue.
In a few days it would be Christmas Eve, and I still didn’t know what to get for Mom and Dad. I was helping Mom decorate our tall tree that we’d placed in front of the big picture window in the living room.
“What’s wrong, Sugar?” she asked. She must have noticed I was not my usual excited self.
“I don’t know, Mommy,” I mumbled, not knowing how to broach the subject. “What did you get Daddy for Christmas?”
She smiled and then started to laugh. “Oh, I got him a good one, this year.” She walked out of the room and came back with a very large box, at least 2 feet wide and 2 feet high. It was covered in red paper, with blue and white snowmen all over it, and a big blue bow on the top.
“Wow! Mom. What’s in that big box?
“Oh, just more boxes,” she chuckled.
“Mo-om! Why did you do that?”
“Well, you know how your father loves to play practical jokes on everyone, but can’t take a joke himself? This year I decided I’d get even.”
She opened up a new box of real tinsel, and handed me a bunch of strands. “Here, help me put this on the tree. You do the low branches, and I’ll do the top.”
“O..K.., but I wanna know about that big box.”
“I know. Do you remember that new Norelco electric razor that’s advertised on TV, during the Friday Night Fights?”
“Mm hm,” I said, nodding my head and hanging another strand of tinsel on the tree.
“Your father says he doesn’t like electric razors because they don’t shave close enough, but this Norelco is supposed to be different.”
“But Mom, I don’t understand. It can’t be big enough for that big box.”
“That’s just it, Sugar. He’ll never guess what it is. You see, I put the shaver in a small box, and then put that small box into a larger box. And that larger box into this big box.”
“Ha, ha! Mom, that’s funny.”
But then we were quiet for a few moments while I brooded. “Mom, what can I give him? Can you help me?”
She thought for a few moments, while hanging more tinsel on the tree. ”Hurry up and hang the rest of your tinsel, and then we can go up to Sam’s. He might have some ideas.”
“Oh boy! Thank you Mom.” I hurriedly hung the last of my tinsel all in one big clump. “I’m ready now.”
We bundled up in our winter coats and boots. There was already two feet of snow, and it was snowing again. I found an unmarked spot of snow, then laid down in it. “Look, Mom, I made an angel with wings!”
“Uh, huh. That’s nice, Sugar. But we need to get a move on, to see Sam before he closes.”
We walked up the road, across the bridge, up the hill to the sidewalk in front of Huston’s. “Can I buy a candy, Mom?”
“We don’t have time. Let’s go now! It’s starting to get dark.”
Just then, the string of lights lit up, that reached across the street between the Texaco and our bar. “Look, Mom,” I said, pointing at them. A big red bell hanging from the middle of the string was covered with a dusting of fresh snow.
“Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way,” I sang. Mom responded, out of tune, “Oh what fun it is to ride, in a one-horse open sleigh-eigh.” We sang together, all the way to Sam’s liquor and gift store in the old bank building.
To be continued.