An old school Christmas is still in fashion

I have to be honest, Christmas shopping isn't exactly my finest hour.

Then again, if my wife and I could get it all done in just one hour, then maybe it wouldn't be quite so bad. But there is never any chance of that. It takes longer to read everyone's wish lists.

This year was particularly tough.

We actually got done in a reasonable amount of time, and amazingly, we didn't have to take out a second mortgage. We even kept the already weighted credit card in the wallet.

No, what made this year disappointing was no one on our lists needed a baseball glove.

My first memory of waking up to see what Santa Claus left me is that of a baseball glove - a Spalding fielder's glove that came up to about my elbow.

It was beautiful.

I dragged that glove around everywhere for the better part of four years, before I found the “glory” of being a catcher.

I had to break it out now and again when I pitched, or, the odd stint at third base, but that glove was never better than on that first cold wintery day when I wore it in a game of catch with my older brother in the backyard.

A year or two later, I got a blue football uniform and pads.

My father had hand-painted blue Rams' horns on a white helmet, and my mother had ironed a white No. 75 decal on the back of the jersey. Deacon Jones was the man.

But on that cold wintery day, I went outside with my trusty Spalding baseball glove and threw about 1,000 pitches at a 17-inch-square, chalked box on a wall. Baseball season was only a couple of months away, and my arm had to be ready.

This year's list did have a football on it. That proved to be more of a chore than you might imagine.

There are now about a dozen different sizes of footballs and each seems to come in six different colors - and each claiming to be from the NFL.

Admittedly, I tend to be old school about these things.

When I played out on the sandlots, it was regulation size, regulation color and regulation rules most of the time.

I was Deacon Jones or Jack Snow.

They didn't play with glow-in-the-dark footballs, and no self-respecting kid in our neighborhood would either. How could you see the blood?

Now, it was less important that there was an NFL logo on it. Quite frankly, that didn't matter a bit. Usually it said Wilson, and that was good enough.

As long as you could kick it, throw it, catch it and tackle it - that's all that was needed. Well, almost all that was needed. You needed a hand pump and needle, too.

So, my wife and I filled a wish list this year with one football, brown, and a hand pump with needle.

Old school never goes out of fashion.