Kane's Christmas Delivery

We moved into the house in Pecan Forest around Thanksgiving of ‘71. For Christmas we bought Britany a tricycle and Scott a pedal car — or maybe it was the other way around. Once we finally got the kids to bed, I sat down to assemble the toys, and I’m convinced instructions like these are written in the manufacturer’s native language, shipped off to India, Japan, or China to be translated into the local language, and then translated again into English. Whatever the reason, the directions weren’t very clear, and one of the vehicles was missing parts. I was getting a little frustrated.

About 10:30 or so, we heard a banging on the roof that scared us half to death. Kathy and I both ran outside and looked up, and there by the chimney was Steve Kane, yelling down at us: “Ho ho ho, oy vey!” I should mention that Steve and his wife Wendy were Jewish and ran the local Ace Hardware store. Kathy had bought me a power saw and an edger from them for Christmas, and Steve had climbed up on the roof just to shout “Merry Christmas” down the chimney while they delivered it.

We invited them in, and I ended up opening my presents with them there. There were all kinds of Jewish jokes about Christmas versus Hanukkah before they finally left around midnight — at which point I still had to scrounge through the garage for substitute parts for the two vehicles. I finally got everything assembled, and we made it to bed around two. The good news: the kids loved their gifts the next morning.