Sophomore year, hooray I was healthy, but a blizzard invaded central Illinois. It took six hours to drive from Jacksonville to Springfield and upon arrival we were snowed in for the entire Christmas vacation. See why I don’t particularly like Christmas?
Junior year found me healthy. A six-inch blanket of snow was falling on Christmas Eve and my mother and I were making pies for Christmas dinner. The phone rings. My neighbor is calling. “Fred, I need help. I bought a bunch of presents for the kids and they all need some assembly. Please bring some tools.” He had two boys, ages six and eight, and a nine year-old girl.
My mother and I loaded some tools and a twelve pack of beer on the sled and trudged the quarter of a mile through the snow to their house to lend assistance. Upon arrival we found his kids were fast asleep and the front room floor was covered in bicycles, slot track, train sets, a doll house, and a dozen other goodies that all had packets of screws, bolts, nuts, washers, and sets of directions awaiting our arrival. Although my friend worked with his hands, he wasn’t handy. I think the motto for the evening was “Let the games begin.”