Swiss Army knives were a classic of my childhood. Nowadays, Leatherman and other multi-tools are gaining in popularity, but the Swiss Army brand will always have a place in my heart. After all, who can forget his first pocket knife? I can't. My dad wanted to give me a knife, but my mother was a little bit concerned. She didn't want me to have something that I could hurt myself with. They finally compromised and got me a small Swiss Army blade. The knife was about 2inches length, and unlikely to seriously injure anyone.
I couldn't have been more happy about it. It had all kinds of different tools. There was a bottle opener, a saw, a fish scaler, a miniature prybar, tweezers, and even a toothpick. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things, but whatever they are, I'm sure they impressed me at the time. It was the smallest model that they made, but it was still quite an impressive gadget to me. I was the first person in my group to have a pocket knife, and all of my friends loved to look at it. Then one day I lost my Swiss knife on a camping trip. I was heartbroken.
My dad consoled me, and a few weeks later he gave me his own old hunting knife. It wasn't as interesting and didn't have all the gadgets, but it was quite a bit bigger. I liked it because I could use it to whittle sticks down to sharp points, to cut things, and even to eat with on camping trips. I cut myself with it once or twice, but I didn't mind. None of the cuts were serious, and I hid them for my parents well enough to not get caught.
The next year, I got a Swiss Army watch from my father for my birthday. He used to tease me because I was always five minutes late to everything. He told me that, now that I had an accurate sport watch, I had no excuse to be late anymore, and I should always be perfectly on time. It turns out that I was. I adored that swiss watch, and looked at it all the time. There was no way for me to ever forget the time with the Swiss Army watch around my wrist. It lasted for years and, although I eventually broke it, I still got a lot of use out of it.
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