It might be a little late for this question, but for the days after Christmas, my favorite question to ask those young enough to be on Santa’s good list is “What did Santa bring you?”

Many this year got what we might have called gadgets in the old days. Even my calling them gadgets shows how out of date I am. Gadgets (can you imagine a modern-day child or youth calling something a gadget?) are usually small tools or machines with particular functions and are, most of the time, novelties.

The gadgets that I see these days aren’t necessarily novelties. Many times they are very sophisticated items that would have been unheard of in my growing-up days. Many gadgets these days have a symbol that I notice very easily. That symbol is an apple that looks as if a bite has been taken.

You probably know that I am talking about cell phones, computers, and other gadgets produced by the company known as Apple. Not only are Apple gadgets very sophisticated, they can be quite expensive. But, I see many Apple gadgets these days and many were given for Christmas.

I saw what they call a smartphone that was given as a present. It’s really an “iPhone” and it made me think. All of the capabilities of the everyday iPhone, a gift that many youngsters received just a few weeks ago at Christmas, render that gadget more informationally-capable than the Pentagon’s greatest computer of 30 years ago. That might not be completely accurate, but I would imagine I am not too far off.

Just think. A cell phone, unheard of when many of us were growing up, can be bought for a couple of hundred dollars and can do what the Department of Defense of the great United States of America could not do just a few decades ago. And our children get them from Santa.

I looked around and saw that Santa had brought another child a computer tablet. This gadget is about the size of a regular piece of paper only a little thicker. It is capable of more things than a cell phone. Millions were sold during the holidays. I have even thought of getting one.

These tablet gadgets can hold entire libraries in their three-quarters of an inch thickness. Think of this. These tablet computers will, one day, replace all the school books we have. Just touch the screen and any book you would like to read can appear. Of course, it won’t make the child or adult read.

Someone said, “I wish I would have had all those gadgets when I was growing up.” That’s a very logical statement. But I thought about it and decided, not me.

I thought of my childhood without all the gadgets. All I had was a cane fishing pole, a simple football or baseball, a fake Roy Rogers six-shooter, a tobacco stick for a horse. Some gadgets!

But, I wouldn’t trade all the simple fun, the security of those old days, the hopes and dreams of a 50s or 60s child for all the modern-day gadgets available these days. I’ll take my old, coonskin cap and my innocence any day!