I was 14 years old, a freshman in high school. Who at the time felt more like a stranger in a foreign land, than a post pubescent teen embarking on a four year journey. I was at a time in my life where I began to put away childish things. No more Saturday morning cartoons, action figures hadn't surface from the depths of my wooden toy chest in ages. I began growing facial hair, and began losing scalpel hair.
While I was embarking on my journal into adulthood, Nintendo was prepping to release their third console into the U.S. market. The Nintendo 64 had already hit store shelves in Japan in the summer to compete with Sony's foray into the home console market with the Playstation. I had begged for the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) in 1988, and my parents had surprised my brothers and I with the NES's successor the Super NES in 1992, but in 1996 I thought it would be futile to even ask for the N64.
I was in a public school, while my two younger brothers were still attending private school. Money was tight and my parents were trying to become home owners. Nintendo had priced the N64 at $250 originally, but lowered the price before the release of the system to $199 to compete with Sony's and long time rival Sega's offerings. With that said, I still planted a bug in my mom's ear. Expectations though were low, the most wanted items of the holiday season were Tickle Me Elmo and the N64.
Christmas Eve had always been a difficult night for me to sleep. Of course as a child, just the thought of knowing "Santa" would be paying my non chimney home with a visit leaving a gang of gifts for my brothers and I was enough to keep me up well past my bedtime. This was still prevalent, at 14 I somehow convinced not only myself, but my brothers as well, that a beautiful Nintendo 64 will be nestled under our Christmas tree.
Christmas morning I sprung out of bed, raced into the living room just to see confirmation that "Santa," aka my parents had indeed left presents under the tree. I went back into my bedroom, woke my brothers up, and before making my way back to the presents, I made sure to get my parents up as well.
We all gathered around the tree, passing out presents, opening boxes one by one. Shirt, jeans, socks, sweater, underwear. There were a few toys, but nothing name worthy, as the pile of present began to shrink, my heart started to sank. I began to blame myself, it was my fault for even thinking that my mom would either (a) remember to buy it (b) afford it (c) find one if (a) and (b) were to happen.
All the presents had been opened and as always my mom asked, "Did you guys have a good Christmas?" Without hesitation we all lied and said yes. My parents retreated into their bedroom. While my brothers and I sat on the couch sulking. The phone rang, and my youngest brother who at the time was nine answered the phone. It was our cousin who was the same age as my brother, calling to let us know what he got for Christmas. Why did kids do this, we were like tiny billionaires who instead of bragging about yachts and companies owned, we boasted about what our parents got us. As if who ever got more meant they were loved more.
The conversation was short, my brother hung up the phone on my cousin, when asked why, he replied, "He got N64!" That made everything worse. Not only did we not get the system, but someone we knew, we were related to, did get it. My mom called us into her bedroom to make asked once again if we were happy with our gifts, and once again we lied. We stood there pathetic, ungrateful liars, who wanted nothing more than a Nintendo 64. As we turned to make start our death march back into the living room to clean up the wrapping paper and boxes, my mom stops us and said that she thinks "Santa" may have left some gifts in her closet.
Our eyes lit up and we rushed over the closet, flung the doors open and began digging. We found three medium size boxes. Joy escaped me. I knew the N64 couldn't fit in these boxes. "Open em," my mom said, so we did and noticed my mom had bought us each a Nintendo 64 controller. This was worse than not having an N64. I thought to myself this poor woman probably thought she was getting a bargain. I could get my boys their own personal N64.
My mother could see the despair on our faces and didn't even attempt to ask us about our Christmas now. Instead she politely asked us to look in her other closet. Reluctantly, my brothers and I walked over to the other closet and open the doors. We again searched through the clothes, less vigor this time. Removing dresses and shoe boxes from the bottom of the closet, started revealed to us a relatively large box. My heart began racing as I flung belts, shirts, track pants and the like until my young eyes feasted upon a brand new Nintendo 64 and a copy of Killer Instinct Gold. My brothers and I ran around the house as if we had just won the NBA Finals, the only thing missing from our post game celebration was bottles of champagne and cigars.
Somehow we thanked our mother who clearly knew we were lying when she previously asked about our Christmas, and honestly she didn't care. She was happy that we were happy.
