My family was dirt poor. A lot of people use that phrase and exaggerate. Believe me, we were dirt poor in the most extreme meaning of the phrase.

That meant Christmas was different in our house than in normal homes. We had nine children and there was no money for Christmas gifts. I was the seventh of nine. My dad had been devastated by the Great Depression and never recovered. He was just scratching by with a lowly Government job and the bills piled up while we often went hungry.

We relied on various charitable and governmental aids for food, clothing and other needs, and Christmas was no different. From my earliest days I remember being taught to write my “wish list” letter to something called The Christ Child, rather than Santa Claus, like most kids did. We never really compared our list with our actual gifts, however, because there was no way the charitable organization could come up with precisely what each child would like.

Yes, Santa Claus was still in our lives, and it was a strange and complicated story that our parents and older brothers and sisters (who now knew better) had to concoct to keep the thrill of Santa alive, along with the promise of gifts from The Christ Child.

Anyway, one gift item that I remember putting on my list for about three straight years was a sling shot, a good one that worked. I kept trying to forge one together with a forked stick and strong rubber band, but they never quite worked. But I guess no one ever donated a sling shot, new or used, to the Christ Child.

I mention new or used because that was the deal with this charity. They apparently asked donors for new or “slightly used” toys and other gifts to give out to their charity cases. So I would have even been happy with a good used sling shot. It never happened. Eventually, I grew out of the “sling shot age” and went on to other gifts that I wanted….but never got.

I mention this because I came across a beautiful, brand new sling shot at http://www.yoursecurityandsafety.com/slingshot.htm, and it all came back to me.

I have a 12-year-old son; he has never asked for a sling shot, but I just felt as though he would really enjoy it once he had one and used it in the backyard to knock down tin cans from their perch on a fence. And I knew that it would be worth $9.95 for me to watch him enjoy using an item that was never quite within reach for me at his age.

My son is very responsible, but I am going to teach him to show the proper respect for the slingshot, and stress all of the rules of safety, of course. He will only be allowed to use it in our spacious backyard, with no neighbors for miles around, and only under supervision. And he is never to aim it at anyone – unless, of course, that person means harm to him or anyone else. In that case, he will be able to take advantage of the power of the sling shot and the 100-yard range it boasts.

As for me, it feels as though I finally received that Christmas present from The Christ Child.