I have no idea of the number of Christmas presents that I have received in my life. I do recall that the Christmas presents when I was very young were relatively modest. My memory of these pictures are that I was age 6, and were taken a few months before my father died of a heart attack. I was very excited to receive possibly my first piece of technology, a pocket watch.

My recollection was that my parents were very surprised when I was in first grade how quickly I picked up basic math and knew how to tell time. The picture on the left shows my happiness at getting a pocket watch and the picture on the left shows how dapper I looked with the pocket watch.

I must confess that Christmas is pretty much a sad day for me. Most of my family members have died, including my parents and my sister who is shown at age 2. I vaguely remember that we used to get a small Christmas tree and that I would help put tinsel on the branches. There was a Christmas village surrounding the base of the tree as well as a Lionel track and train set. There’s nothing like this smell of a real Christmas tree!