One of my prized possessions when I was a child was my 1960s Corgi Austin A60 De Luxe Motor School Car. I think that I might have received it as a Christmas present when I was about seven or eight years old. My brother had an identical car, so I am guessing that they were Christmas presents.
I loved that little car, and it was just part of a large collection of Matchbox, Dinky, and Corgi toys that we had. This little car was special because the red wheel on the roof turned the front wheels so that the car would steer and I remember practicing my parallel parking on the windowsill in our front room, long before I ever knew that parallel parking was a thing. The box was thrown away on the day of purchase and the car was chucked in a box with all our other cars when we cleared away after playing. That at least is how I remember it; my mum, bless her, would possibly remember a very different version of the story and her tidying up after my brother and me when we had gone to bed.
Over the years of my childhood, that little car was played with and abused. There was a time in my early teenage years when I found a tin of red paint in the garden shed and spent time repainting the little car (not very well, and with scant attention to detail) and the thing became a somewhat questionable matt red colour. The once clear plastic widows were scratched and no longer transparent and the little car looked nothing like the proud blue and silver model that it had been as it was lovingly taken out of the box.
After getting married, my wife Karen became a registered childminder and over a period of about twenty years, the little Austin A60 motor school car was played with and loved by a whole stream of other children. It moved from Bradford to Hethersett and then to Ipswich with us and last summer it moved to Dereham and sits not in a box on top of our wardrobe and will shortly be owned by my grandson.
I looked at an online auction site and see that a model in mint condition with its original box would cost me £75 today, one optimistic Italian seller is asking £242 plus £34 p&p, even a tatty, played with model is up for just short of a tenner; looking back to the early/mid sixties when my parents bought my little car, I can’t imagine it costing more than a few shillings (less than a pound).
That present was never given to be an investment for the future, to be stored away and retained in pristine condition. It was bought to be played with and as I think of the car I recall a story that Jesus told of a man who left his workers in charge of his property, each was given a share. Two had invested wisely and returned a profit, while one hid his gift away and handed it back in pristine condition.
My little car might be worth nothing in monetary terms today, but it is worth a fortune to me in memories and hours of fun. Gifts are given, not to be stored away, but to be used.
I hope that you are using to the full the gifts you have been given.