Day Sixty-eight - Ceremony of opposites

So, as I recenty illustrated, times would come where things got so lean for us that we could barely afford to eat. As such, niceties like birthday and christmas gifts became something that - moreso than ever - would have to be more funcional than exactly fulfilling. If we were in need of some new pants or some shirts or whatever, then that would be what we'd be getting. I guess as a kid you don't really deal well with not getting what you want, but I had to understand just how dire things were getting. The way I figured it, a time would come in the future - be it near or distant - where I could have all that I thought I would be missing out on. That time came, and then it went, and now, in a sense, I am experiencing it now again. Still, it didn't make it any easier, especially when I'd go over to Valter's for his birthday and see the enormity of presents he always got. I can't be sure whether or not I ever got him somethhing for his birthday, but he'd always get me something, usually a CD. 

But speaking of birthdays, there's one just before all hell broke loose - I'm inclined to say that it was in 1992, though it could have been as early as the previous year. I was still very heavy into Transformers, and though things weren't still as bad as they were bound to get, things weren't so good that I was getting toys all the time - far from it. I'd be lucky if I got something for my birthday or chrtistmas... and all the while, me and Valter had a very competitive sort of friendship, one which I could never compete with or against, really. He had much more than I did, be it comics, CDs, toys or videogames. And one of the thingsI did all the time back then was snooping around the toy stores we had around the area to se what was new. You really never knew back then, for the most part, when new stuff would be on the shelves. And, on one fateful day, I saw this Transformers toy that not only had I never seen before, but it was of such an enormous size, that it immediately captivated me. For days on end, weeks maybe, I went to that store every single day just to take a gander at this behemoth. I never quite knew if they only had the one unit, or if they had more, but I always dreaded arriving at the store and not seeing it there. And man, this thing was expensive. Much more expensive than any toy I'd ever had before. So expensive, in fact, that I knew I would never have it. But soon enough my birthday was approaching, and I just had to ask my mother if she could get it for me - I even told her in advance just how pricey it was. Obviously, I expected to be just laughed under the table, but to my great surprise she said yes, and on my birthday we went to the store to get it! The fact that Valter accompanied us and saw me getting the biggest Transformer any of us had ever seen was just the icing on the cake.