THE BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT

Our Radiology department produces a news letter every 3-4 months, that is available for all hospital personnel to read on the hospital intranet (yes that's the correct spelling i-n-t-r-a-n-e-t). It is called the X-File. Each issue shares a little something that's going on in the Radiology Department and/or some of the individual departments of Radiology (CT, MRI, Ultrasound, Nuclear Medicine, Interventional Radiology or general x-ray)

Last year I began contributing an article for each issue titled, Meet Your Co-Workers. In each article, I pick out 6 or 7 staff members and ask them questions that will shed some light about them...things that most people wouldn't know.

We are making an issue for December and my questions include...What was the year and model of your first car?...What do you like on your toast?...and...What was your favorite childhood Christmas gift?

For some of the guys and gals that I asked the gift question...they struggled to come up with an answer. When I was thinking up what questions to ask, when that question popped into my head...I knew immediately what my answer would be.

In 1960 or 1961...Santa brought me a 'Rifleman' rifle...from the TV Western, The Rifleman. The show was about a western cowboy/farmer and his young son. The dad, Lucas McCain, carried around a rifle that had a special lever on the handle, so that as he 'cocked' the rifle, he was able to make the gun shoot immediately. With this attachment, rather than cock the gun...aim...and shoot...he was able to repeat the action quickly and fire the gun in 'rapid fire' mode. (Watch this video of the opening credits of the show and you'll see what I mean.)

Well...when I got my rifle (toy rifle...not a real one)...I became the fastest shootin'est cowboy in Owensville. I was able to put a roll of 'caps' in the gun and it produced the noise, smoke and smell of a real shooting gun.

I was shootin' bad guys faster than they could make 'em.

What a great Christmas present. One I've never forgotten.


Dan