A Christmas Memory

A very good friend asked me what one of my favorite Christmas memory was and I thought about a memory many years ago and it was just before Christmas my mom took us kids to our next-door neighbor’s Jewish church for a fund raising event. Along with things for sale like clothes and Christmas treats to eat they had an HO small race track setup and for a $1 you could race around once on the track. There was a real pretty girl who was a teenager that ran the track.  I was about 6 or 7. I had no experience with racing little cars around the track so after I handed my dollar to the girl she gave me the control for my car. At the first turn I crashed my car. To my surprise she said I could try again! I was so delighted at the second chance. I think I fell in love with her! I told mom about what happened and I had to get my own model race track! She said maybe Santa can bring it. Later in the week I was snooping around their bedroom for Christmas gifts and I saw they bought me a race track just like the one that I raced earlier. I could not believe my eyes. Christmas morning I knew it was coming and when I opened it I didn't want my parents to know that I knew about it previously but I went slightly crazy with kisses to both of them. It was awkward moment for me. I could not wait to set it up under the Christmas tree. My love for model racing grew and grew until I had tons of cars and tracks. I lived in an almost all boy neighborhood and in my basement I laid down an elaborate track and with my friends we created a racing car club. Almost every night after dinner the boys would come to my basement to race. I got real good at taking apart and rebuilding my cars with fat racing wheels and souped up motors. We would race for hours. I still have my cars and tracks. Unfortunately my track is old so one year we brought Chris his own race track.