What was your Red Ryder BB gun?

In My Humble Opinion
41

I really wanted a pair of ice skates, too. All I got were my brother’s hand-me-downs (he’s 9 years older and significantly taller than me: I’m 6’0”; he’s 6’7”). All I remember about wearing his too-big skates is spraining my ankles more than once.

Brother was also our high school basketball star athlete (photo-featured often in our local newspaper’s *sports *section). When I got to high school the coach used to admonish me for not being able to dunk the ball like my brother. *“Sorry coach, but my brother’s 7 inches taller than me…”
*

42

dunking. now there’s something i always wanted but never got.

i was constantly jumping.

i remember finally being able to reach the ceilings in our hallway. my mom would find my prints on the ceiling and the ceiling popcorn on the floor. got told to stop it constantly. didn’t till it got too easy.

playing basketball at home constantly inching the goal up while still having it low enough to dunk it.

at school (regulation height rim, springy wooden floor) i was so happy when i could first touch the net.

then the backboard. i was overjoyed.

then, after years of near daily working towards it, the rim. i was officially the coolest sumbitch i knew.

my dunking high point was being able to get a tennis ball pushed into the rim with two fingers of my right hand. i was 5’ 8 ½”, 135 lbs. not bad, not spud web though.

i wanted that so bad. it’s a good thing i didn’t know where to get steroids. my 18yo dumbass for sure would’ve taken them.

43

Horse. Wanted one since I was four, got one when I was eleven (extremely ancient animal a business associate of my dad’s was looking to get rid of since his daughter was tired of it). The well-named Rusty was the best present ever. He was my entry into a world of riding, the magic of which never left me though I had to leave it behind for forty years.

Now I’m retired and just bought myself a horse again! Just as fun as it was when I was a kid only now I have money, big improvement.

The only thing I can remember wanting as bad as a horse was riding lessons. Never got those. Now I’m taking those lessons! I’m twelve! It’s great.

44

Sometimes parents just don’t listen and get specifics wrong. In our family, we got used to swapping presents when it became clear they couldn’t remember who wanted what.

My big ask was that little LED Coleco football game (recently seen in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, also heard in “The Logical Song”). I did get that, and really enjoyed that. I still remember me, my siblings, and friends playing the hell out of that thing until arcades became a thing.

45

Mine was a Jeep Radio… they were these portable cd player radios that they gave away on some disney kids game show. I don’t think I ever asked for it though, and the desire went away. Besides, I lived in Chicago(still do) and my Dad bought me a bow and arrow set to snipe pumpkins in the back yard, no other kids got a toy like that. In the city anyways. My Dad was a really cool man.

I bought a red ryder bb gun when I was 16… maybe the older ones were better, that thing was boring.

46

I may have an alternate explanation: one year I mentioned to my SiL that I’d considered getting a rock tumbling polisher for one of my nephews. She said she was glad I hadn’t, 'cause she thought they’d be quite loud.

Next Christmas, her parents got the kids… a rock tumbling polisher. It was quite loud. Even banging away in the garage. For days.

I think it was one of those presents that got used for a week, then got “put away” and never managed to show up again.

So maybe it was more the annoyance factor, than the jewelry factor that nixed the rock polishing.

47

Respect.

48

That’s funny, Star Wars is such a multi-generational phenomenon. My 10 year old got his much-coveted Millennium Falcon lego set (1300 pieces!) this year. I think he’s wanted it for 3 Christmases in a row. But I thought he was never going to get around to opening it because he was so busy playing with a set if miniature military airplanes he was also give. I don’t know what it is about mini stuff that kids just love.

He was pretty thrilled with the lego set, though, once he got to it!

49

A Lionel electric train. I got it for Christmas when I was 8. Played with it for years, and I still have it (though it’s not in great shape now).

50

Rock polishers are the worst gift ever. No one tells you that it’s loud as hell and needs to run continuously for a month. Hope you have a detached garage or something.

I asked for, and very much wanted, a game system back in the Atari/Intellivision era but Christmas came and no such gift was under the tree. I took it well and didn’t get all pouty or anything but was obviously disappointed. I went upstairs and, a few minutes later, my parents called me back down with “Santa forgot a gift and came back”. There under the tree was a Colecovision (top of the line then) with the Turbo steering wheel. It was a regular Red Ryder moment, short of me shooting myself in the face.

51

My dream was to wake up Christmas morning and find a kitten in my stocking. That NEVER happened. Also wanted a pony forever even though we lived in an area where I could never have kept a pony! I have to say I usually did receive the other items I asked for.

52

I hate you. :stuck_out_tongue:

53

I don’t remember asking for something I really wanted that I didn’t get. Got a BB gun (Daisy), Creepy Crawlers, Vac-u-Form, remote control robot, etc. And one year my brother got a rock tumbler/polisher! It was so loud we couldn’t run it in the house, not for the weeks and weeks it took to polish a rock. I had a comfortable childhood.

54

I had a purple 1970 Enduro. We put a new sprocket in it, and it would almost climb a tree. We lived in the mountains, so climbing power was more important than speed.

55

My kids begged for that crazy rock polisher, one year. We got it for them . They never even used it. I still have it unopened in a closet. It was the same year we got them a trampoline. I still have that too.

56

I had two. First was the erector set. Nope, “not for girls”. My brother had one that he never touched, but he wouldn’t let me play with it anyway, the arse.

The second was I wanted to play the harp. My Mother was Red Ridering for a piano at the time, and she tried to get me to ask for it for Christmas. My Dad cottoned on to the whole thing and told me that if I worked hard on my piano lessons he would get me a harp later on. At my last performance I played Beethoven’s “Sonata Pathetique”, which, while not professional level, is generally accepted to qualify as “hard.” I’m still waiting for my harp.

57

I actually got a Red Ryder BB gun. Two of them in different years. First, a silvered one without the wooden foreslock, then classic version with the buckskin thong a few years later for an upgrade.

58

My sister had one. Yup. Noisy and horrible. An expensive, annoying way to turn worthless items into equally worthless, but prettier items. I seem to recall it smelled or leaked, too.

59

For me it was a talking KITT car (from the tv show Knight Rider). I had seen it advertised on tv and really wanted it; my parents weren’t able to get it, and it was well before there was such a thing as the internet (where once-obscure objects are now often commonly available).

I got a magic kit and a plush Care Bear instead. Didn’t really care for either one. I didn’t fuss over it - my parents were really good to me, and I’ve had fantastic Christmases before and after - but I was definitely disappointed.

Now that I have children of my own, I realize the struggle my parents went through to try and get that special toy every year. My kids are teenagers now, so sadly, they don’t believe anymore, but when they were young I worked really hard to make sure they weren’t disappointed.

They challenged me - I remember one year the younger boy asked for a ‘duel disc’. It’s this thing he saw on a cartoon online; it’s from one of these card games (Yugioh, maybe?) where the character would wear it on their arm, and it would hold cards and tally the person’s score. The real thing worked basically the same way, with straps to hold it on the arm and space for a half dozen cards, with a little button for keeping score. This was around four or five years ago. My initial searches indicated that this toy was last manufactured new in 1996. If I wanted to purchase one in original packaging, it would cost hundreds of dollars and the packaging would be entirely in Japanese. It would also take up to three months to receive it (presumably from Japan). I was starting early, but it was still time I didn’t have.

Eventually I was able to track one down closer to home, but it was used. Including shipping, it cost around $60. I ordered it anyway, and when it arrived I cleaned it up as best I could and wrapped it up in a generic box. Younger boy was thrilled and got enjoyment out of it for a long time, so I was very satisfied.

So here’s the kicker: both boys were at a local thrift shop some months later. When they got home, Older boy rushed in, beaming with pride, so happy to show me his prize - he had found a matching duel disc, so now they each had one and could play together! He passed it to me, and I turned it over, only to see the price sticker - $2.00. I passed it back to him gently, told him how happy I was for him, and off they went to play.

To this day, my mother will call me in December and ask what the ‘talking KITT car’ is for the year. When my boys are older and have children of their own, I plan on calling and asking what that year’s ‘duel disc’ is going to be. :slight_smile:

60

Yes! They made it look so much fun in the commercial. We never got one either.

Actually, that reminds me of a thing my brother and I used to do to annoy each other. A toy commercial would come on, and one of us would say to the other, “I bet you want that. Well, you can’t have it!” Good times.