Time for a trip down memory lane.

A story from Parade magazine:

Christmas in Boston, 1963

“John F. Kennedy had been shot a month earlier in Dallas, Texas, and the world was like an ice-ball.

It wasn’t just Boston or the Catholics that loved JFK. The entire world loved him.

Everyone was sad, and now it was Christmas.

I had my eye on a toy “Supercar” displayed in the window of Ligget’s drug store in Roslindale Square.

THAT would make me happy. I was only 11, and we were very poor. My Mom, my two brothers, and I lived on a shoestring budget.

I kept hinting to her that this great toy was down at the store, and I really wanted it. She said, ‘Billy, there’s no money for that. I’m sure Santa won’t forget about you though.’

I was thinking, ‘Yeah, right. Like Santa knows what I want.’

I kept telling my Mom that if she didn’t get soon it would be grabbed by someone else.

Every day that went by I checked the window, and one day, I was right.

Somebody had bought MY TOY.

I was devastated.

Christmas Eve arrived, and I wondered what this ‘genius’ Santa Claus had planned for me.

We all woke up on the big day, and I was just ‘meh’ about it.

I opened a few things and I saw a present, ‘To Billy from Santa!’

I opened it, and it was the Supercar toy!

I was so thrilled and yelled, ‘He didn’t forget me! You were right, Mom!’

I eventually figured out that she put the item on lay-a-way and paid a little at a time until she could pick it up. I asked her why she didn’t tell me.

She said, ‘I wanted you to know that nothing comes easy in this world, and the surprise of something unexpected was, in the long run, far greater than the gift was.’

The world didn’t feel like an ice-ball after a while, and The Beatles had arrived to make us dance and sing and made it ok to laugh again.

The appreciation of surprises kind of changed my world view.

—Billy West; voice artist known for voicing Futurama, Ren & Stimpy, the Red M&M, and much more.

What's changed your World View?

Other than the Beatles, of course...