A Bone To Pick With Santa: Christmas 1971
I had a bone to pick with Santa! For three months I had been on my best behavior. I wanted a BB gun so badly I could taste it. Despite the disappointment of not receiving a Model 104 Golden Eagle Daisy BB gun on my September birthday, like my best friend David had the year before, I was trying my best to be exceptionally good in the hopes that Santa would take note and take pity on me in my plight! Christmas morning came and my behavior modification had been all for naught! No BB gun under the tree!!! There were many fine presents under the tree but no gun! My parents had warned me that I was not mature enough yet to own a gun and they had talked to Santa about it. (They must have known the old guy personally because he agreed with them. Such a betrayal. To add insult to injury, David’s brother Bob got a BB gun for Christmas and he was 2 years younger than me!!
After opening the rest of my presents, we piled into the car and headed to my grandparent’s house in rural Coffee County for Christmas dinner with my uncles, aunts, and cousins. Lo and behold, the first thing we saw as we drove up was my cousin Mack, also younger than me, with a brand new Red Ryder BB gun from Santa! The ignominy. Come on, Santa! Is there no justice at all in this world?.
After enjoying my grandmother’s delicious dinner, we boy cousins headed out to the front yard to play. We devised a game where we all got equal time with Mack’s new gun. I had received a plastic gun on which one wound plastic propeller discs that could be fired either horizontally or high into the air. We decided that one of us would stand in the yard, close to the parked cars, and fire a disc up into the air. As they descended, the shooter would stand on the front porch with the BB gun and shoot the discs out of the air. What could possibly go wrong!? Mack volunteered to shoot the discs into the air first as I would be the first (and only, as it turned out) to fire the BB gun. Mack shot a disc high into the air. I fired the first shot, and missed. I quickly cocked the gun and fired again. By this time the disc had fallen considerably and my second shot took out the passenger side front window of my Uncle Jack’s car.
Several things happened simultaneously at this point. The sound of shattering glass accompanied by my shouts of fear and the sound of a gun clattering on the front porch brought a flood of adults boiling out the front door to see which child was missing an eye. Terrified, I ran to the back yard, crying. I knew I was in a load of trouble and probably about to receive a well deserved whipping. I stood weeping against a mimosa tree stump and waited for my punishment.
My dad was the first to come to me and he put his hand on my trembling shoulder and asked, with real concern, if I was hurt. Seeing that I was not, he relaxed as my Uncle Jack came around the corner. He said to me dad, “Allen, if it’s alright, could Mark and I work this out?” Daddy agreed. Uncle Jack put his hand on my shoulder and then gave me a hug. Walking back around front to his car he said, “You know Mark, we were driving down here this morning, I noticed how scratched up the windows are on this car! I was wondering if I could talk one of my nephews into shooting them out for me so I could get some new ones.” My relieved laugh put all of us at ease. Then he said, “Mark, insurance will pay for a new window and this can be a great lesson for you. Always be aware what is behind your target. No one was hurt and you learned a lesson.”
I certainly learned several valuable lessons that day. I learned how much my uncle and my family loved me. He showed me Mercy and Grace when I deserved punishment. I believe that if I had been punished I would have quickly forgotten all about it and learned nothing. In his love for me, Uncle Jack practiced the Masonic Value of Prudence by applying patience, wisdom, and understanding in such a way that I remember it 54 years later. I certainly was not mature enough to have a BB gun that Christmas but the lessons of that day moved me in that direction. As we celebrate Christmas, let us practice prudence, patience, mercy and grace in imitation of the One we celebrate.
May God richly Bless you all.
Right Worshipful and Reverend
Mark Johnston, Grand Chaplain
