I will admit that we can afford to be a lot more generous in the last few years but the later Christmases don't stand out as much as some of the earlier one's. Yes, there are a few details about the first three or four I just can't even link to but there are a lot of good one's out there.
One year we had been to Susank, Kansas just north of Hoisington and I am sure it was a hunting trip for my Dad. We would go to my Grandparents house and eat copious quantities of food and then sing songs till the cows came home. (There really weren't any cows there, that was later in Arkansas) Grandmother always sent us home with Christmas presents and really didn't put up a tree. My mother said that she wanted to do something different that year. She saw tumbleweeds blowing across the road and had my father stop and get a nice round one that hadn't been hit by a car. How he got it home undamaged was tribute to the size of the trunks on those old cars in the 50's.
Once it got home, My Dad had the job of making it stand proud and stable. There would be no water pan needed as it was long since dead. He did manage to pick up some pink paint and some flocking spray and it looked like a pink tumbleweed that had been left out in the snow. Mother did her best to find small ornaments and lights that would make it pretty. I remember there was a couple of dozen 1 inch gold glass ornaments and about the same number of silver one's. I don't remember any lead tinsel that year I am sure that more than one cat got sick eating that stuff. When complete, Mom insisted that the tree be placed on a table in the living room. Back in those days we didn't have a console TV so a table had to do. The main thing I remember Dad saying was "Jesus Christ, we spent more decorating that damned tumbleweed than a real tree would have cost." Dad always did say what was on his mind.
One of the first Christmases I remember here at Rabbit Run was the year that Barb asked for and got a tree that was at least 10 feet tall. I just did fit in the dinning room if I moved the table. She decorated the heck out of that tree and we still have ornaments from that tree. To tell the truth, somewhere there is at least one ornament from about every year. Many were gifts from her students and I think there is even a pie plate with a macaroni tree that Dave made in about the third grade.
This post was inspired by the fact that today I finally got a "round tuit" to get Barb a tree. There is a nice 8 foot white pine tree in the dinning room drinking water and relaxing in the heat of the house. I will be on the decoration duty sometime today. I will carry a bunch of those storage tubs upstairs and Barb will sort through them and decide on what theme we will use this year. No, I don't do pretty, I am the hanger of lights and carrier of tubs. Come New Years, I will get the job of removing ornaments and tasking the tree outside where it will be until spring or so. From the deck you can still see the skeleton of at least one tree (or two)
Barbara and I got married in February and by the next Christmas I was in Vietnam. Our first real Christmas together was in December 1969 and we were snug in an 8X38 foot Trailer. We were young students doing our best to learn to live together and survive college without having a ton of student loans when we finished. I think the Christmas tree craze started when we had out own house in Lansing, Kansas circa 1973. We have been collecting Christmas stuff since and I am pretty sure it would take one load of a U-Haul truck for just the Christmas stuff. Oh well, what is life for if not to please your family with a nice set of decorations.
Merry Damned Christmas from MUD the Grinch.
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