The life of a Xmas tree: Part 1

The silver tinsel tree! Before my time.

When Mom and Dad first got married they had an aluminum Xmas tree. They had blue silk-string covered balls on it. You didn't string lights on the tree. There was a plastic disc divided into 4 colors that rotated with a light behind it which projected the colors onto a tree. But this awesome sounding tree was not part of my life. It lives in my memory only because of the descriptions from Mom. For me Xmas was all about a green artificial tree purchased in 1970 at Target, 2 years before I was born. It was the Xmas tree of the Rogers family for over 40 years. I believe I will start telling some stories involving that Xmas tree during the holiday season.

I think the 1st year of the green tree I knew growing up.

 

My first clear memory of the tree was Xmas of 1976. I was 4 years old. We had moved to Dudley in September of '76. I remember waking up in the middle of the night on Xmas Eve... techncially Xmas morning... absolutely freezing. I remember laying on my stomach, pulling my blankets to my neck and putting my pillow on top of my head to keep warm. When I woke up in the morning Mom was sitting me up putting my coat and hat on me and telling me how our heat went out overnight. I can remember that mom picked me up and was carrying me to the kitchen... we had a gas stove so they had the stove on and the door open so that room was nice and warm... and as she carried me through the living room I saw the tree over her shoulder in the corner... and I remember from my vantage point I could only see one present... and I was wondering "Did Santa just bring us one present?" Nope... I didn't care about being cold at all.


Apparently my mom's brother came over and nearly set our house on fire with the kerosene heater... but I don't remember that. I remember playing with my toys (I got more than one present) with my brother in front of the tree. That tree seemed so big back then... I'd lay under it at night with the lights on and marvel at how tall it was... it was truly not that big a tree... but when you're 4 years old the world is large.