MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS PLAYS ON OLD RECORD

This is the story about a woman I know, eBay, an old record and Christmas.

This lady spotted the record while scouring the Internet for oldrecords her daddy played on. He was a country musician aroundRoanoke who made several 78 records back before his daughter wasborn. When he died a few years earlier, he didn't own any of his oldrecords or original instruments.

She's no record collector and she doesn't have a lot of money.Her job doesn't pay very much and she only works part time so shecan take care of her own mama. She raised her family back in an erawhen women didn't work outside the home very much. She was raisingbabies when she probably should have been going to college orlearning job skills.

Then, when the kids were nearly grown -- boom -- she was expectedto find a job in the "real world" to put her children throughcollege. The transition from housewife to a series of 9-to-5 jobswas neither easy nor lucrative.

Anyway, she scans eBay regularly for the same reason everyoneelse does. She shops for bargains and inexpensive gifts. She alsolooks for those old records, the heavy black discs snapped up byreal collectors years ago.

A couple of years ago, one of her daddy's old records showed upon eBay. Just in time for Christmas! She placed a bid on it andwatched as the price slowly grew. She was willing to spend about 20bucks, but she couldn't go much higher than that.

She badly wanted this record. It had been a hit in the early1940s, selling thousands of copies right about the time her daddywas shipped off to fight the Japanese. Bad timing there.

She was the high bidder for days. She watched the clock, therecord was hers -- right until a last-minute bidder snatched it fromher clutch.

Blasted lurkers!

She still had a chance. The winning bidder's e-mail address wason the site, so she wrote him a nice note, explaining that her daddyhad played on that record and that she'd really love to have it.

She offered to pay him what he had bid, plus a few dollars extra.

She didn't want the record to sell later or for a collection. Shewanted to give it to one of her sons as a Christmas present.

The guy never wrote back. So it goes.

She didn't have much of a Plan B for presents that Christmas, soshe figured she'd just tell the story of how she almost won herdaddy's record online. Who knows, maybe another copy will pop up oneBay someday.

December rushed by like a runaway sleigh and she forgot about therecord until just a few days before Christmas when a flat, squarepackage arrived in the mail from Kansas. Kansas?

What would she be getting from Kansas?

She opened the package and surely by now you've guessed thatbeneath the tissues and packing peanuts rested the record she hadtried to win on eBay. The guy who won it sent it to her afterreading her e-mail.

He never asked for a dime, not even for shipping. To this day shedoesn't know the man.

That Christmas, she gave her daddy's old record to her oldestboy.

And that's the story of the Christmas my mama gave me the old 78record of "Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die" that features my grandpa.

That was one special Christmas.