I’ve always felt the best birthday gift I gave was being born. For over 76 years it has brought enjoyment to so many folks. It has been a gift that keeps on giving.

I shamefully admit that I have hardly any recollection of other birthday gifts I gave. I’m sure they were all special. Every year, without fail, I gave my sons whatever birthday gifts my wife picked out for them, and on top of that I treated them to birthday dinners. As for my wife it is just too difficult to identify the birthday gifts I gave to her because her birthday always fell on or about Mother’s Day so I cannot separate in my mind which great gifts I gave for her birthday and which for Mother’s Day. Her 50th birthday (or was it her 40th) stands out, though, and that was the gift of a surprise party at an Italian restaurant in Bethesda. In addition to her immediate family members who attended my sister along with her husband made the trip to Maryland from Johnson City for this occasion wearing a cast on her leg, and our friends, the Bradys and the Vitiellos, and the three other members of the Close Quarters quartet and their spouses also came. Oh, Wendy Rieger was also there and I made the mistake of giving Wendy full authority to order the wine for the table throughout the evening . Wendy likes fine wine and when I got the check I felt like I was paying for a wedding.

What were the best birthday gifts I received? I wish I could remember more about them. I do know I never felt disappointed. What I do recall because it was an annual occurrence is receiving a gift of money every birthday from my Aunt Mary who was my Godmother. The amount was always the age I attained. This stopped when I was 21. She told me that since she turned 60 it was payback time and wanted me to send her $60. The nerve of that woman. Another birthday gift I clearly remember was my red two-wheel bike. That was for my 12th birthday and after 2 years of being restricted to riding it only on sidewalks I was allowed to take it out on the street when I was 14. I felt like I had arrived.

My biggest surprise birthday gift was a night at the circus. I don’t remember what year it was. My wife asked me what did I want to do for my birthday and I said I wanted to go to the circus. So she got the tickets and we went. After being seated the Bradys, the Vitellios, and at least 2 and maybe 3 of the White brothers showed up to join us. We all went to Sylvia’s house after the circus for birthday cake.

I have more vivid recollections of Christmas gifts, particularly family gifts. Every year I presented my wife and sons with a dozen super-size Cinnabons. One Christmas I shocked everyone in the house, including my wife who was clueless about this, by giving an Atari, a VCR, and a movie camera. I might be wrong on what the gift collection was, but it was three big things, all on one Christmas, a gift worthy of the exclamation “Best Christmas Ever!!!” The other family gift of note that I gave was a fully planned trip to Disney World. My wife was actually annoyed that I did this without consulting her, but we discussed it, change the dates, and went by auto train to Florida. I don’t remember whether Jake was able to make that trip with us.

I took particular pride on the Christmas gifts I managed to get for my wife on Christmas Eve each year. It provided satisfaction to me even though she would return about 80% of them, always, though, with the consoling statement that “it’s the thought that counts”. The specific gifts I do remember which she didn’t return were a pearl ring I gave her on our first Christmas together in 1971 and a Mother’s Ring with birthstones of our sons that I gave to her on Christmas 1984.

A Christmas present I dreaded giving every year was the gift to my homeroom nun at St. Patrick’s School. My Aunt Ann would buy black stockings for the nun, wrap them up, mark the gift as being from me, and make me take it to the convent on Christmas Eve. How did she even know the nun needed stockings? Why did the gift have to be so intimate and personal? Wouldn’t an apple left on her desk suffice?

As for Christmas gifts I received there were many over the years, always welcomed. An annual occurrence was the gift of a $2 bill I received as an altar boy after Midnight Mass every year from third grade to high school. This was given to every altar boy by Father Lewis and Sister Rosario and I remember often thinking “maybe it will be more this year”. But no, we never got even an increase to a $3 bill and I concluded that the religious with their ridiculous vow of poverty couldn’t care less about the rising costs of living.

The Christmas gifts I most remember as a child were a Cowboy and Indian set which I played with endlessly, an electric football game which my cousin Jackie and I played (never succeeding in getting the football figures to run straight ahead), and sports equipment. The latter refers to the Christmas when waiting for me near the tree on Christmas morning were a baseball glove, a football, and a basketball. It was another Christmas deserving of the “Best Christmas Ever” ranking. I was overjoyed with that collection, even though I was not allowed to play any of those sports.

I can’t finish this story without noting the generosity of my father. On Christmas morning 1963 he told me to look across the street at the entrance to St. Patrick’s School. Parked there was a used 1955 white Nash Rambler, a product of the old American Motors Company and my first car. On Christmas 1971, which was the first Christmas my wife spent with the English clan, we were up in Johnson City. My father gave my sister and her husband a miniature house and he gave me a miniature car. The significance of those items was that as his Christmas gifts he paid off a second mortgage on my sister’s house and he paid off a car loan on my 1970 Cougar. He was not a wealthy man, but he did have some savings, and since he was getting married the next month, he wanted to first provide his children with those gifts. It was a classy thing for him to do and we were most grateful, although to this day I wonder how much was the second mortgage payoff versus the car loan payment. Did I get the short end of the stick? Probably, because Joan always was my father’s favorite.