Courtesy of the Daily Mail

Roy of the Rovers

Our Uncle Keith went to England with his family in 1960. He was working for Macmillan Publishers. That didn’t affect me, as a ten-year-old, until he started to send presents back home to me, the first being for Christmas that year.

I’d never seen an annual before. You can still get them every year around Christmas time in the UK, but in Canada they were nonexistent. So imagine my surprise to find this under the Christmas tree. I devoured it.

And, as a consequence, I became an avid fan of English ‘footie’ (football aka soccer).

Junior Pears Encyclopedia

But that wasn’t all! The next Christmas, Uncle Keith sent me what must have been the first edition of the Junior Pears Encyclopedia. Now I had a research book which opened up the whole world to me.

I cannot express how wonderful that was for an eleven-year-old. In fact, I would say that my thirst for knowledge has never diminished.

Conclusion

My father, Ewart, was known in the Miller clan for always giving the same two things as presents: books and music. I took after him, without knowing that.

In my world, books are a way of increasing our awareness of the world around us. Music opens up the soul to a different experience. Together they enrich our lives.

They are the gifts that keep on giving.

Uncle Keith and Aunt Freda 1966