Ungrounded Outlet

I went to Georgia to visit my grandparents yesterday. It was a nice trip.

While there, I was reminded of a Christmas from the distant past. Well, actually, it may have been my birthday; gifts were involved and if it were my birthday, then this story would not be particularly applicable. For the sake of argument, we’ll call it Christmas.

Many years ago when I was just a little tike, I went to spend some time with my grandparents. Perhaps it was a week; I don’t remember. But I was there and I guess I had fun. There were two kids my age next door so I spent a lot of time playing with them. Anyway, while there, I discovered the box for a Sesame Street playhouse under my grandparents’ carport!

Oh joy! My brother and I are their only grandchildren, so I deduced that were were going to get a Sesame Street playhouse for Christmas! I was very happy! I was so excited, in fact, that I must have mentioned it to my grandmother.

She told me that sometimes, she gets boxes and puts completely unrelated things in those boxes to throw little boys off the gift trail; just because I saw a Sesame Street playhouse box doesn’t mean that the playhouse was actually in there. In fact, she said, it was something else entirely.

Oh noes! I spent weeks afterwards trying to figure out just what my grandmother could be hiding in that box. I couldn’t guess. It was such a big box, but what could it be?

It turns out that my grandmother is a liar. It was the very playhouse pictured on the side of the box. I was so surprised! Using her cunning deception (and other stunts, like distracting me with fruitcake), she had ensured my surprise and saved Christmas!

Anyway, this year, I’m giving my mother a gift which I have put in an entirely unrelated box to throw her off the trail. I’m not sure if deception is the lesson my grandmother meant to teach me all those years ago, but deception is the only thing I took away from it.