I am sitting here wracking my brain trying to figure out what to give a six-year old boy for his birthday.

He's a little too young for illegal fireworks or a BB gun. He doesn't quite yet have the coordination for a slingshot yet and they do not make little kids tool sets like they used to so I can really sharpen the saw up for him. Those plastic tool sets are worthless.

It'll be a couple more years before he'll be able to handle a bull whip so that is out of the question. So is a bow and arrow set.Maybe next year for that one. Seven year old sounds about right for the bow and arrow. I've got a few more years until he'd appreciate a chemistry set, so that's out.

Being an uncle is really quite a challenge because it is the sworn duty of the childless uncle to give the kid the things his parents do not want him to have to insure he has a good childhood. It has been this way for generations. I had an uncle that took care of me with the needed things of childhood.

Maybe when he's about 11 or 12 I'll dig out my model T spark coil and give him that. There's nothing like a Model T spark coil to give to a kid, especially one that has a parent with naturally curly hair because one good poke from a spark coil will make it stand straight up and knocks the curl clean out of it.

Of course, I have the excuse, being childless, to the accusations of the angry parents that discover the leg of their Chippendale coffee table has been sawn off by their son with the saw Uncle Piccolo gave him.

"Gee! I didn't know! I never had kids. Who'da ever thought?"

Of course, I will make sure that whatever I get the kid will be accompanied with a big bag of candy and a case of Mountain Dew.

Maybe next year he'll get a slingshot and a bag of 1/2 inch steel ball bearings, but I guess he's just going to have to settle for a set of drums.

my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/