Joseph L. Kagle, Jr. Essays

A Personal Christmas Story

When I was very young, my parents told me to go to sleep early, leave some milk and cookies, and Santa Claus just might visit our house during the night. He might bring presents and place them under our tree. The three of us children knew that our parents had little or no money to buy gifts therefore we came down the steps expecting nothing under the tree. To our delight, we each had some surprise, neatly-wrapped presents.

It is with this memory that I got a call from my daughter who lives in Houston. She is in Human Resources for a company. She said, “I got a letter, checked on the person, and need some help getting gifts (especially bikes) for three boys. The company has already allocated its Christmas giving so I am doing something myself.”   Later, I got to read the letter and it started something like this: “I am writing this letter because my family has fallen into extremely hard times recently. I worked for the company for many years. My husband’s job is practically non-existent. Right now, he has exhausted all his unemployment benefits and his company medical insurance has been eliminated. All our funds go to food and our children’s health care. Our pride and the way we were both raised have prevented us from asking for public assistance but we need help now. Especially with Christmas! We have 3 boys who have never given us a moment’s trouble.”

My daughter said, “Do you know anyone who might donate three bikes? I will add my own money for cloths and some gift certificates so that the woman and her husband have something for Christmas. Also I will check with a local church that helps at this time of year for those who cannot help themselves.”

My answer was: “No, I do not know anyone who has boy’s bikes but let me see what I can do.”  The letter had said: “All three (boys) really need and want bicycles (sizes: 26” and two 24”s)”

As parents, my wife and I had preached the axiom: Better to give than receive. But you never know if the lesson is learned. I know now from that telephone call that it had, therefore I started out trying to find three bikes in good (but used) condition. My first call was to Outback Bicycles. They had no used bikes but when they learned the reason for the inquiry they gave advice. “Go around to the pawn shops. You can bargain with them for a good price on bicycles.” Ten pawn shops later and four days of comparing prices, I found the best price for three good bikes.

I know little or nothing about bicycles so I asked my friend John (who rides each day for exercise and pleasure) to go with me and view them. To see him trying each one out in the parking lot, on deflated tires (since the pawn shops do not want them driven away before someone pays), was worth the final cost (less than new ones- even less than most used ones- but fair for the pawn shop owner). By the time that John checked the gears, brakes, each coupling and kick stand, I knew that I was making a sound investment.

After taking them to Houston, I sat, being told in detail about presenting the gifts to the family. They lived in a small apartment (the five of them) and their faces lighted up when the bikes and clothes were presented. Normally, the two younger boys argue but now they acted like the gentlemen they were and agreed on who got which 24” bike. The mother was in tears when my daughter and a co-worker left the house. In fact, all were close to tears of joy.

We will go down to Houston again on the 25^th and celebrate our exchange of gifts but now we jointly know that the best gift has already been given to us: the gift of giving. Somehow, when you know that you have so much and others have little or none, simple gifts of giving make the holidays come alive with added meaning.  The mother of the three boys’ last words in her letter speaks volumes about this season: “God bless you all and please don’t mention my name. I feel so ashamed about asking but my children come first.”