When my brother and I were quite young, our grandfather used to buy us some rather unique gifts. One of my favorite memories of him is from when I was maybe about five or six years old. My grandpa wanted to buy us something for Christmas, so he went to the local store and asked what toys were popular with children at that time. They directed him to the Lite Brites, which hello, were quite awesome.
My grandparents were farmers, so they weren't extremely well-off and therefore had to pinch their pennies. I believe he studied the Lite Brite section for a while and analyzed all of the prices. He ended up picking up a pack of refill papers for both my brother and me, thinking he was getting us each a very affordable Lite Brite. When we opened our gifts on Christmas, we were both under the impression that we had received Lite Brites. We were totally excited to start playing with our awesome new toys when we realized that they were only refill papers for Lite Brites that we didn't actually own.
We couldn't bear hurting my grandpa's feelings because he was so proud of himself for being able to provide us with the "in gift" of the year. So we played with the pieces of paper as though that's what a person does with Lite Brites. He never knew any differently.
My parents helped us return our Lite Brite refills to the store and pick something else out in exchange. I have no clue what we bought with our store credit, and it doesn't matter in the least to me now. The memory of how happy my grandfather was to get us Lite Brites just makes me smile, and that's the best gift he could have left us with.
To this day, I am probably one of the few kids from my generation who never owned a Lite Brite. Although for a day or so, I did own some refills.
You're never too old to play with a Lite Brite. Go make one here.
My grandparents were farmers, so they weren't extremely well-off and therefore had to pinch their pennies. I believe he studied the Lite Brite section for a while and analyzed all of the prices. He ended up picking up a pack of refill papers for both my brother and me, thinking he was getting us each a very affordable Lite Brite. When we opened our gifts on Christmas, we were both under the impression that we had received Lite Brites. We were totally excited to start playing with our awesome new toys when we realized that they were only refill papers for Lite Brites that we didn't actually own.
We couldn't bear hurting my grandpa's feelings because he was so proud of himself for being able to provide us with the "in gift" of the year. So we played with the pieces of paper as though that's what a person does with Lite Brites. He never knew any differently.
My parents helped us return our Lite Brite refills to the store and pick something else out in exchange. I have no clue what we bought with our store credit, and it doesn't matter in the least to me now. The memory of how happy my grandfather was to get us Lite Brites just makes me smile, and that's the best gift he could have left us with.
To this day, I am probably one of the few kids from my generation who never owned a Lite Brite. Although for a day or so, I did own some refills.
You're never too old to play with a Lite Brite. Go make one here.
2 Comments:
That's so sweet of your grandad! I remember those.. and I still love those. =X
Hey, I never had one either. And I turned out okay. So, it's all good.
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