1981
The best Christmas gift I ever received was given to me by my father in 1981. It was a great suprise then, and I am still amazed by it to today. I opened the wrapping and inside was a check box. I thought, that was strange what would I (at 13 years old) want with a box of checks. When I opened it, I could not believe my eyes. It contained about 30 T206 baseball cards. Included was a Coob portrait, a Walter Johnson portrait, an Addie Joss portrait, a Chief Bender, John McGraw, etc. Many had back damage, as they were at one time pasted into a scrapbook. But I did not care - they were the first pre-war cards I ever had, and I still have them. At that time my collectoin consisted of mostly cards from the late 1960's - 1981. Then I was told to open up a present that looked like it was going to be a new baseball bat. It was a baseball bat, but not for me to use in teener ball. It was a Ty Cobb model bat. My head almost exploded at that point. My father told me he had gone to an estate sale earlier in the year, and the cards and bat were auctioned off. Best suprise and Christmas present I ever received! Memories of this have meant a lot to me over the years, as I lost my dad to cancer in 1983.
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