Now I'm not complaining about my childhood. I didn't do without food, electricity, or any off the other essentials. My parents were far from rich growing up, but they did manage to hook it up with some pretty good loot around the holidays usually. As a parent, I'm already stressing about the holidays this year just because 2020 has been so unpredictable. This makes me all that much more thankful for how hard it must have been for my parents, because to put it bluntly, they weren't as financially stable as I am as a parent. I'm grateful beyond words for that.

With that said, there were a few things I wanted as a kid that we just could not afford...or that were just completely ridiculous lol. On the ridiculous list, I wanted that giant parachute we had in gym class once a year. That thing was AWESOME! Back before the internet could find you literally anything you wanted to buy, some things were just unattainable no matter how much money you had. I imagine there was just one guy that went door to door, school to school, across the countryside selling giant colorful parachutes to people who wanted all the experience of sky diving, but without the thrill....and all of those people were elementary school gym teachers.

There was one thing I wanted that for some reason never happened. It wasn't crazy expensive or anything. Maybe I just got off the kick before a holiday or birthday rolled around. Teddy Ruxpin. Now THAT was a toy. Keep in mind that I lived with an uncle who was 10 years older than me and listened to metal. He showed me the way of the 80's glam rock and old school Metallica. For those of you who remember, Teddy Ruxpin operated off of cassette tapes. I JUST ONE DAMN TIME wanted to hear my beloved Teddy Bear serenade me to the classic kids favorite, Ride the Lightening.

...Perhaps that's why I never got one

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