Gift from my name sake and father's friend

CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR BABY ALLEN

I was named after Richard Allen, a good friend that my father had made when he was in the navy. "Richie" lived in Massachusetts and was descended from Ethan Allen. The first Christmas after I was born (June 20, 1951), Richie Allen sent my Dad a Christmas present, an old $2 bill (dated 1917). These old large-sized US currency bills ( ; 25% larger than current US currency) had been out of circulation for a while, but Richie Allen worked at a bank in Boston and still occasionally came across one of the bills. He gave this one to me. The only time that I ever spoke to him was to call him by phone to tell him that my father had died.