Editor’s Notes for 2012 – A reflection on a Christmas from our Editor in Chief

EDITOR’S NOTES

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Once Upon A Christmas Time

would come out and start throwing rocks at us because we were vandalizing her property and we would delight in throwing rotting figs at her and in teasing her for being out of sorts over "her" property, which we all knew was on the main public dirt road and public property.

On some occasions, one of the boys' parents would buy them a Matchbox car, a little replica car from the late 60s and early 70s (yesterday's version of HotWheels die-cast cars). They would go around showing it off to all the kids and they would be Duke for a Week, permitting anyone they like to have a turn playing with the little car.

I was often pushed aside or made fun off. My dad never got me one of those, I had none to trade or loan in exchange for the privilege of playing with the other guy's prized toy car.

I was often bullied by these kids' who probably thought it was all just fun for them. There were many times when I would be invited to play with the Matchbox and then I would be told to give it right back, or someone would step in with their stick cart and kick up dirt on me as I drove the tiny car over the stairs or on the concrete pavement or on make-belief roads and towns along the dirt groves.

There were times when I was loaned a Matchbox and then the kid would in a few minutes ask me how come I am playing with his toy and then proceed into beating me up, resulting in all kind of arguments between the parents, which delighted these kids and of course I was grounded for a week, because I was the guilty party and should not have accepted the offer in the first place. I should have been shrewd enough at the age of seven to realize that the neighbors' kids and my play friends were simply oafish and selfish and displayed a streak of their adult counterparts and their own parents - a lesson which eventually did sink in.

And then on Christmas Eve, my dad asked all of us to go to the bedroom early. We all slept in the same bedroom,