Leading up to December, I usually help tell Meagan something I’d like to get for Christmas. She usually helps me by telling me things she’d like. I’m terrible at getting gifts, so it really helps me. I’m difficult to buy for as well, so I guess it helps Meagan know what I’d like. She’s good at choosing gifts for people, though, so she’d be fine even if I didn’t tell her anything.
This past year as Christmas neared, I still didn’t know of anything to recommend. And Meagan didn’t have a good idea up her sleeve either. She told me, a few times, that she didn’t.
But one day after church, we visited a local restaurant for the first time. As the waitress got our drinks, Meagan was beaming.
“I’m so excited, Marshall. I was talking to Gage, and we came up with the best Christmas gift for you.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“I didn’t know what to get you,” she said, “But this is literally the perfect gift for you, and you’ll never guess what it is. I’m so excited.”
I smiled. “I actually thought of something too.”
There’s this hand drum called a cajon. It’s looks like a wooden box but with strings on the inside to give it a resonating sound. You sit on it when you play it.
I first heard them at a pastor’s conference, back when I was maybe 12 or 13. A group of people were sitting in a circle with acoustic guitars and hand drums, singing and playing worship songs. Someone had a cajon. I’d grown up around music all my life, but I’d never heard of a cajon, much less seen or heard one. It sounded awesome to me, like an acoustic version of a subwoofer. It had this deep, bassy sound.
They called it a box drum. I later found out it’s also called a cajon.
William doesn’t like cajons. Typically, people who play them don’t know how to drum. That’s his real problem with them: the fact that people who play them are usually lame. It’s not the drum’s fault.
I like playing a full drum kit, and I’ve always been able to do that. I haven’t wanted to get into any hand drums. Lately, though, I’ve been playing more acoustic guitar and thinking more about playing fully acoustic sets. The cajon seems like the perfect addition to an acoustic guitar to make the sound bigger and certainly more percussive.
“Do you know what a cajon is?” I asked Meagan.
She smiled.
“I think I’ve told you about them before,” I said. “They’re like a box drum?”
Now, one thing you might know about Meagan. She’s terrible at keeping a surprise. She gets too excited. But really, who could blame her this time?
“That’s what we were going to get you!” she said. “I can’t believe it.”
I never saw Gage’s face. He was sitting on my left. Meagan said he just busted out smiling when I said a cajon.
