My First Birthday Present
I remember my very first birthday present. It was a Mighty Max digital watch. The exciting about the watch (and all Mighty Max merchandise of that time, really) was that you could open the clasp covering the watch and reveal a miniature setting based on the Mighty Max television series, including a small plastic Mighty Max figure of himself. The figure could be made to stand on holders inside the scene such that it felt like Mighty Max belonged in that dungeon, or cave, or whatever it was.
My mom took me to Toys 'R Us and told me that I could pick any toy that I wanted. I don't remember the exact thought process that brought me there, but I ended up in the aisle with all types of colorful watches for children. I probably wanted a watch when I was young, I remember associating watch-wearing with adulthood.
And after we had bought it, I remember her remarking to my dad how surprised she was that it was all that I wanted. And it was. I was absolutely in love with the watch, and played with it any opportunity that I had. I wore it to school all the time, and had it on when I played outside. One afternoon, while playing on my neighbor Jeff's swing set, the Mighty Max figure fell out onto the grass, and was forever lost. That was quite the traumatic experience for me, since I adored that thing.
Not surprisingly, the watch was not the same without Max. It was 1996, at the start of my second year in the United States. Not very often nowadays do I treasure objects as much as I did toward that watch. Rosebud.