WHAT'S BEEN UNDER YOUR TREE? ...AND, WHAT DID YOU LIKE MOST?
...or, rather, what did you ever find there that you loved the most thus far in your life? Yeah. What is the best holiday present you've ever received? I'm curious. Share. Don't hold back.

I was thinking about this today as I tried to calm my nerves as someone was working what I thought was my last one. (this has not been a great week for me, but it is about to get much better! true. i will be broke and unemployed, but i figure i am quite employable and know that this is the right direction/path for me to take. the timing can't be helped. ...but, i digress...)

The Top 3 Christmas presents I've ever received came from my mother. This is a bit of a shocker as my mother is critically gift-challenged. As an example -- a few years back I received a large bottle of Tylenol. This year she sent B a fruit cake. She just doesn't seem to have a knack for knowing what to get someone for a gift. However, it is the thought that counts. And, I do think there is thought there -- just not a great deal of gift logic applied.

Still. When you're five years old and Santa brings you gift wrapped socks and underwear --- it is a bit of let down. I don't think she ever "got" that. The funny thing is that she and I discussed this just recently. I told her that she had given me the three best presents I had ever received. She had no idea that those three presents meant all that much to me. And, in a moment of true honesty she explained that all three almost didn't happen.

Between the ages of 8 and 11 my whole world revolved around two movies: Ken Russell's film version of The Who's TOMMY and Barbra Streisand's version of A STAR IS BORN. Yes, we all know I was an odd queer child. ....Most likely from the moment of conception. Anyway, I've written before that there were no boundaries in my family when I was a child. My father took me to see every movie released no matter the rating or the subject matter. My mother was quite fond of leaving me at cinemas to substitute for babysitters. In the summers I would pretty much live at the movie theaters in my home town. She never cared what I saw --- She would walk to the booth, buy a ticket to SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, give me $3, hand me the ticket and leave me alone to try and understand what I was seeing on the screen. Despite all the freedom and non-restrictions there was one area in the world of entertainment which left my mother quite nervous: Barbra Streisand.

When I was four years old and demanded that they buy me all of her records and began collecting pictures of the still young diva -- my mother knew I was gay. And, she blamed Ms. Streisand.
When THE WAY WE WERE opened I was not allowed to see it. THE EXORCIST? Oh, no problem. FUNNY LADY --- that was a fight. I had been dragged to THE GODFATHER movies but FUNNY LADY demanded that I throw fits to get her to agree to let me see it. But, back in 1976 A STAR IS BORN was a big deal. I remember her buying me a ticket to see CARRIE one Sunday afternoon and I saw the poster of ASIB in the lobby. I was 9 at the time I was entering the cinema to watch CARRIE but I was wishing I was 10 already and it that it was Christmas so I could be watching Barbra Streisand in A STAR IS BORN. My mother said "no" --- she told me it was a dirty movie and I couldn't see it. I remember pointing out that I was the only person in the 3rd grade who was being allowed to see CARRIE and she told me that CARRIE was just a silly horror movie. D'oh! ...but I didn't let up.

By the time my bday rolled around in November of 1976 I had pretty much won the battle. A good friend of hers had pointed out that she didn't see why it would be a problem for me to see ASIB if I had been allowed to see TOMMY, CARRIE and NETWORK. My mother caved. Of course, I ended up catching the flu right before Christmas and we couldn't go that evening. But, the LP was waiting for me under the tree. For some odd reason my mother had decided to cover the LP in really ugly 70's wallpaper because she "didn't approve" of the iconic photo that graced the cover. But, still, I had the record. ...no cover, but I had the vinyl and the pretty gatefold pix on the inside. I played that LP till you could see through it. ...The following spring we had to purchase a new copy for me. ...and a new turntable needle. I kid you not. And, by then, my mother gave up and let me have the LP with the cover, but I couldn't display it.

Anyway, this LP became my second fave Christmas present of all time.

The third came in the form of this: I searched and searched the Internet and I am ALMOST positive that this is the exact model boom box I was given for Christmas 1981. I love this boom box and played it for years. As a matter of fact I was still playing it when I left for Boston in 1991. This was my third favorite Christmas present. My mother almost didn't get it for me because she thought 8 Track tapes might make a come back. Luckily, another pal convinced her that this would not be the case. ...it came with a cassette of Elton John's Greatest Hits.

But the best present I ever received was given to me on December 29, 1976. Barely recovered from the flu, my mother took me to a screening of A STAR IS BORN at the Gaylnn Twin Cinema on Calder Street in Beaumont, TX. Mom was sobbing at the end -- as were most of the women in the sold out audience. However, everything is bigger with my mother. So, as Babs discovered Kristofferson's dead body on the side of the highway, my mom had to cry louder than anyone else. She looked like Alice Cooper at the movie's close so messed up was her make-up.

I was simply enraptured. This is one of the happy memories of my childhood. The next two weeks would be spent explaining the movie frame by frame to my classmates. All of whom wanted to see it, but were not allowed to see R-rated movies. That was a sublime present. Oh, and I got my first erection watching Kris Kristofferson and my mother forever tainted my image of The Captain & Tennille because of it, but that is a whole other posting --- in fact, I already posted about it several months back.

Now, what is the best present you've ever received? I wanna know it all. Don't hold anything back! ...and, Happy Holidays!