Thursday, December 22, 2005

Memories come slamming back

Marines Stand In For Santa In Stratford
"...Needy kids get toys through the more than 100 social service agencies in Des Moines. Thursday, the Marines landed at Stratford Elementary School.
"They were selected because their homes were destroyed by a tornado," said Marine Sgt. Ben Smith, a Toys for Tots coordinator. "We feel it's the right thing to do.""


The Christmas after the Manson tornado, someone gave our school a ton of board games, and I think it was Toys for Tots. I think the American Legion men and the women's auxilliary passed them out. They were in uniform, but we were all so used to seeing people in uniform after a whole summer of the National Guard in town that it didn't phase us at all. I didn't pay much attention to them.

I remember stacks and stacks, reaching above my head, of games. Each kid got to pick two games, age appropriate. I can't remember both games that I got, but I remember that one was a "LaVerne and Shirley" game, and the other was something similarly weird. My sister in kindergarten received "Candy Land" and a "LaVerne and Shirley" game. Obviously, we didn't know anything about this until it was happening, or we'd have coordinated so as to receive four unique games. Brand new, not even out of their shrink wrap... I was in awe of getting a game when it wasn't even Christmas yet (few days before, but hey, I was in second grade).

The only other thing I remember right now about that Christmas, is that my mom was pregnant with the twins. I can't remember if we knew that she was having twins yet, or if we still thought there was only one monster in her stomach, but come the end of May, my twin sisters were born. They both nearly died, and my mom with them. Three days after a horrible dust storm...

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