by Robert Gauper
A few times, Mr. Kamiyama gave us MFTers $100.00 to buy Christmas presents to send to our families. I would send $50.00 to my wife in New Zealand, which was a lot of money because of the weak NZ dollar at that time. My wife would then buy presents for her family. I spent the remaining $50.00 on fundraising product at cost and then traded for presents. One year I arranged for a florist to wire flowers and a gift to my mother. She was shocked to see the Florist delivery van driving up the muddy dirt road to our house. She was even more shocked to get flowers and a present.
Later, in the fish business, although we often had a Christmas gathering and a sushi party, I desperately longed for a traditional Christmas dinner. Perhaps I now overcompensate. I’ll be cooking my fifth turkey of the holiday season in a few days. (Although maybe the turkey I burned to a crisp shouldn’t count. I blame it on the Cubs and the last game of the World Series.)