My birthday began like any other birthday; shirts, socks, pants and underwear. After I had finished unwrapping all the things that my parents told me I needed, my father walked into the room with a large silver wrapped box. As soon as my eyes met the package, my eyes lit up because, I knew it was what I had been asking for. But, just to make sure, RIP, SHRED, TEAR...yup, Nintendo. I quickly opened the case and my eyes scanned each and every piece. There were wires and controllers and even two cartridges.

My parents smiled at the sight of my happiness, but little did I know what my father had planned for me and my gift.

About a week later, my father arrived home from work and found me playing Super Mario Brothers. He must have known that Duck Hunt was included with the system because he pushed me out of the way and began to play the stupid zapper gun game. I thought of stopping him but he never had anything like this when he was a kid. Back then, you know, all he had was his pet dinosaur, the one he probably had to ride to the one-room schoolhouse. So I went upstairs.

An hour later, I walked downstairs to see if my dad had shot himself with the zapper gun. Nope, he was still alive with 18 ducks dead. Not bad for a guy who lived in a cave as a kid. He sat there like a nine-year-old, adding sound effects and moving side to side as if the ducks were shooting at him. BANG, SWOOSH, SHABANG.

That birthday went down in history as the birthday that my dad gave me something that he needed. n