It was 1974, I had just turned 12 the month before christmas, my little brother was 10. We woke up very early as we always did on christmas morning, our parents were never out of bed. Dad had a long standing rule that no presents are to be opened until we are all around the tree. So of course my brother and I always found ways to make enough noise out in the living room to wake them up.
They finally come out and tell us we can open one present, then we have to eat breakfast before we unwrap anything else (they just want their coffee ). So after breakfast we unwrapped the rest of our presnts, mostly jeans, socks and underwear as usual, but Dad was really sneaky, he had hidden to long boxes in the back of the tree that we didn't notice until he said "Boys. I think there something in the back of the tree there" we go around and sure enough two long boxes, we furiously opened them, you guessed it Daisy Red Rider BB guns, we were extatic. Mom was freaking out because she didn't know about it and would never have allowed it, told ya Dad was sneaky.
Not the end of the story
So of course my brother and I race to get dressed to go outside and try out our new BB guns, while we're outside my Dad goes into the garage and brings in another gift my mom didn't know about, she nearly fainted from what dad told me years later. So after about a half hour outside Dad hollers for us to come back in out of the cold. After we settle down, dad asked me to fetch him a glass of egg-nog, and as I walked into the kitchen, there was the most beatiful thing I had ever seen. It was a custom built (Homemade) 5hp Briggs & Stratton Chopper Mini Bike with a chrome gas
tank, a 5ft. high sissy bar. chrome spoke wheels, just beautiful to me, of course I was screaming and my brother came running in and now he's screaming and we're running all over the house freaking out.
It was the best, most memorable Christmas I ever had.
