I think that my father only ever gave my sister & me one ‘proper’ present – by which I mean for birthday or, in this case, Christmas, all wrapped up in festive paper with a card saying Love from Daddy.
I do not wish to imply that he was a mean, distant or uncaring father – far from it. For instance I remember some wonderful toys he made when we were small, particularly a rocking horse & a double fronted dolls house with electric light in every room.
But formal occasion presents were left to mummy & other female relatives, except for horrible uncle, who used to give us extravagantly ‘grown up’ presents of Max Factor talcum powder.
What made the present even more extraordinary was that it was bought new from a shop, rather than made by him from scratch or acquired second hand & lovingly restored & refurbished.
We each got one of these mysterious & unexpected presents after everything else had been opened on Christmas morning.
Small portable transistor radios.
We both burst into tears I think. How could daddy have known how badly we wanted to be with it but would never have dreamed of pestering for something so extravagant.
