Wishing and hoping…

I remember my childhood as poor and limited but loved and safe in the hands of my grandparents. One of my favorite things I would do with my grandmother is sit at the kitchen table with the JC Penny’s Quarterly Catalogue. It was as big as a phone book from my small perspective. I rarely stopped at the clothes or appliances or gadgets that filled the beginning pages. From time to time I would pause at the jewelery for my grandmother. She had an eye for gold necklaces and clip on earrings. As soon as we’d get to the last page of glittery treasures, I would flip quickly to the back where the pages were filled with toy after toy after toy. I got to circle whatever I wanted and fold the corners over to make it easy for my grandparents or Santa or whomever would be fulfilling my decadent wishes.

Alas, I think I rarely received anything from those pages. Santa was always good to me at Christmas, but throughout the year, toys were usually second hand from a neighbor or a family friend. Fortunately I didn’t realize my lack of toys until later in life (like last month when I bought a Wii only to find myself playing the original Super Mario Brothers as long and whenever I wanted from the comfort of my own living room). As long as my grandparents had aluminum foil in the house for my bracelets, I would play Wonder Woman in the yard for days on end and I rarely felt deprived (depraived would be for another post).

What’s this ramble really all about? Glad you asked. With my birthday coming up, people are constantly asking me what I want. So I spent a few hours on the world’s biggest internet catalogue (Amazon) and was reminded of just how fun it can be wishing and hoping for all of those things you really don’t need but would be fun to have. There are a lot of things on there that are pricey and expensive that I would never expect from anyone… but a boy can dream, can’t he?

Click here for my wish list