I don’t think I’ve ever answered this in my decades of blogging. The best physical gift was a computer (!!!) before everyone had one. From my dad. Out of the blue.
About 50% of the middle class had one at that time and computers were rare in the working class. I was poor then. Not working class. I only lived with my mom. But my dad who I didn’t see much or get much money from was working class. I was in high school and no job at the time.
It was a Commodore 64. Yes, that was when dinosaurs existed. I’ve always loved computers so that was awesome. I mostly played games on it since it wasn’t connected to the internet all the time. Since we only had dial up internet (like most people at the time), I couldn’t get online that much. But I probably was online at least 1 hour per day.
I signed up for email newsletters that were like forums so I could read the newsletters when I wasn’t on the internet. I joined a few dog groups, and a few religion related groups (Judaism and I can’t remember the others) even though I wasn’t religious at all. Still not.
I spent time talking to local people too. Well, I mostly played games with them. I only talked to one guy. I think he was chronically ill and maybe bedridden most of the time. I felt bad for him, but I could tell he might have wanted more than a friendship and to be honest, I didn’t want to hang out with a guy locally. I only wanted to chat online.
Breaking news: I’m not a people person.
I loved those days. Now everything I have I buy for myself. I never got a car, or a birthday party from my parents or anyone. I have to pay for everything. No more gifts. Well, I used to win things. Like books and electronics under $100. Loved it!
I’m not so lucky these days.