Roots

A moment of repose, a slight detour of sorts.
Today I was talking with my wife about a post about Dick Wagner I was preparing for another site I am writing. Well, one thing lead to another and I began to reminisce.
I was thinking back to when I first became interested in music and my first guitar. From there, a quick google directed me to this photo. There it is, not the exact item but the same model that was my first electric guitar.

Christmas 1971 -
In November of that year, I found a sale ad for a local department store of the day named Topps. They were running their specials for Christmas lay-aways and there, a half-page ad of a Teisco guitar and amp combo for $39.95. I tore the ad out of the paper and told my mother that I wanted this for Christmas. And nothing else.
I saved the ad. I looked at the ad every day. I studied it closely. I would fold the worn newsprint what must have been hundreds of times from that day until Christmas.

As you have guessed, under the tree that year was, in fact, an oddly shaped package that held the answer to my wishes. I know that my mother had to endure some hardships that year as she was recently a single mother of five and struggling with re-entering the workforce. She found a way to buy that gift for me and I have never forgotten the conditions we were living with at the time.