Christmas, It'll Be Here Soon
by Ren Summerlin

Yes, it will. Christmas will be here before we know it.

I have about quit shopping. I have reached the stage that I don't know what to purchase. If only there was a section for girls and one for boys and each had only one thing to buy. That could make life so much easier at this time of year. This could go for everyone, wives [which I do not have], children, grandchildren, friends, uncles, aunts, cousins, and everybody.

That would also mean that each child received the same gift, the same for the grandchildren and all of the aforementioned.

Shopping would become so much easier. Why a visit to the grandchildren aisle, and each gets the same gift. A person could cut shopping time to nothing flat. I have long since stopped trying to buy things. It either does not fit, is the wrong color, the wrong size or is out of style.

One Christmas, we bought Sam [my son] an electric train. It came in a box with English as the only language. This should tell you something about how long ago this was. I made the decision to put it together for him. I knew better, but we all learn from our mistakes.

The track was together, but the train would not run. I double-checked the directions again. All parts were there. All were assembled in the correct way and even resembled the diagram. But it would not run. A-Ha. There is the problem. The tracks are not making good contact and need to be tighter

No problem, I thought. I need something to make the tracks stay together.

Super Glue.

Hey, hey, this will be the solution. But it was not. It was as far as keeping the tracks together. But not to getting the train to running.

I knew what I had done. The tracks were connected with the glue, and the low voltage current would not run through the glue. I just sat there in the floor for a while. I had no idea what to do.

So I read the directions on the glue. It said finger nail polish remover would unglue the glue. The girls were still at home, so I began to look everywhere I could look without being overly obvious about the whole thing. Luckily there was a little in a bottle in the bottom of a cabinet in the bathroom.

I used the entire finger nail polish remover. It took the glue off and the paint on the tracks. I had traded one problem for another. I knew for sure that the train would not run. I was not to be disappointed. It never ran the tracks again.

Nothing to do but make a trip to the store to get another. I told the store guy what had happened, and he was very sympathetic." This is not the first one of these to do this" I was told. "Tell you what, take another and see if it works any better."

On the way home I made another decision. Leave it in the box and if Sam needed any help putting it together he most certainly would ask.

He did not need any help and in about 10 minutes had the train running full throttle Christmas morning, and I sat watching what could have been a major catastrophe become a miracle.