A Special Gift for Dad
By Joe F. Martinez
My dad was born in 1914 in an Adobe
home in northwestern New Mexico. My grandfather was in possession of a land
grant given to our ancestors for their help in establishing the New Mexico
territories.
My great-grandfather and his seven
sons built their homes on a bluff overlooking the Brazos River. Although they
had all this property, they had no means to do anything with the property. They
worked on farms and herded sheep to make a living. At age 10, my dad went to
work in a local lumber mill for a wage of 15 cents an hour. His earnings went
directly to my grandmother for the needs of the family in that two-room Adobe
house, which consisted of three sisters and one brother.
From the time Dad was 10 years old, he
was always helping his family. Grandfather was a shepherd and was gone for
months at a time, so Dad subsidized the family income. Through the years, Dad
was always helping others. I can remember him helping neighbors and family with
all kinds of chores, carpentry, painting, electrical work and fixing other
people's cars. He never asked for pay or accepted pay. He loved to help others.
For all the many things he did for
others he never really had anything for himself. In 1955 when I was 10 years
old, our family consisted of three girls and six boys. My dad worked in the
coal mine as a brick mason. It was not easy back in those days to raise a large
family with mine wages. To supplement our income, Dad would gather scrap metal,
copper, and brass and sell to the recycle center. To save money he would go to
the mine tipple where they loaded coal in train cars and picked up chunks of
coal for our coal burning stove.
On this year as Christmas approached,
mother proposed that we get Dad something special — not the traditional new
shirt and the things we made at school. We would ask Dad, "What would you
like for Christmas?"
His answer: "I want you kids and
your mom to be happy." That's Dad for you. Always thinking of others.
All who could, pitched in and we
scrimped and saved — mostly Mother did. As Christmas drew near, we wondered
what Mom would get him. We children got really excited about this Christmas. We
were more excited for Dad than we were for ourselves. Gosh! We were happy to
lay under the Christmas tree and look up at the lights, especially the ones
that made bubbles.
One day Mother announced that she was
going to Price, Utah, to get Dad's present. We wondered what it would be. Dad
would be overjoyed for sure. When Mom got home we asked, "What is it? What
is it?" Mom calmly said, "Wait till Christmas." Well, we could
not wait, but we did. This made us more excited and Christmas could not come
soon enough.
Dad never asked for anything ever, so
we thought of all kinds of things he might like. Finally, Christmas arrived.
That morning, all of us kids were up waking up Mom and Dad. We wanted to see
that gift — that special gift for Dad, the man who always gave, was about to
receive.
The excitement mounted. "Dad,
hurry open this. Hurry Dad, open this." Mom handed him the present.
Slowly, he pulled the wrapper and a blue box appeared. We yelled, "What is
it? What is it?"
I looked up at Dad as he opened the
little blue box. His eyes narrowed, a tear formed, and his lips quivered. He
could not say a word!
I will never forget that look on Dad's
face. Finally, he said, "Muchas gracias, familia" and gave us all a
hug and a kiss.
I cannot remember what we children got
that Christmas, but the beautiful gold Elgin wristwatch was something we talked
about for years. Dad loved that watch!
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