Rocking Around The Christmas Tree

The Old Man has a long history with Christmas trees. There has been one in my life since I was 2 months old. We've had our tree up and decorated since Thanksgiving weekend. The train is clickety-clacking it's way around under there and tooting it's whistle as it passes through the symbolic town of Bedford. Miss Martha has again outdone herself with the exact, almost clinically scientific placement of the ornaments. I'm pretty much relegated (out of choice) to dragging the tree in and getting it set up as the pallet for her artistry. My role at that point, becomes to serve in an advisory capacity. It's a good arrangement that has stood the 45 year test of time. In the "dark age" years before pre-lits, my responsibility extended to putting the lights on the tree. I can personally attest to falling victim to every malfunction electrically possible on Christmas lights. These temporary setbacks resulted in some very colorful linguistics that I can still call on when the situation merits.

Most nights, I wander in the living room and just sit and admire. I'll run the train for a bit and just let my mind open up the vault and allow some new memories to escape. While each Christmas we share is special, I firmly believe that the reflection on those past brings the deepest comfort and peace. During my reverie and with the discovery of the forgotten box of pictures, I began to remember clear details about the Christmas trees of my childhood.
Virtually every tree in those days was a cedar tree. They were prolific in the fields around our town. Fact of the matter is....they were one notch above weeds in the agricultural food chain. The grocery stores would buy a few from the farmers who were happy to get about 50 cents each. We would then buy our tree for $1.00. Dad would nail cross braces across the stump of the trunk and then set the whole business down in a bucket, weighting the genuine, hand built tree stand with several rocks. When filled with water, the deal proved pretty stable.
Strung with the lights of the day, it's a wonder of wonders that we did not go up in a swirl of flame and smoke. When you factor in the heat from those bulbs, you can't put enough water in a bucket to retard drying of a cedar tree. Mom would put a few ornaments and some tinsel on the tree. The exciting part to me was always the adorning with the silver "icicles". That's when the tree became magic. I recall Mom's excitement when she finally bought some plastic icicles that would glow in the dark. I still have 3 of those. They've been on every tree in our house since we got them from Mom when she decided to get out of the Christmas decorating business. A lot of her decision was probably driven by the fact that you could no longer buy a cedar tree for $1.00.

So, I encourage you to find time during the busyness of the season to simply gaze on your own Christmas tree....and pay tribute to Christmas Past. You'll find comfort and warmth there.