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| Me (in my Brownie sweater) and my sisters with our dog, Scottie #2 |
I never wondered why we didn't have a real tree when I was little. We just didn't. I accepted that and assumed that everyone did. My father would take HOURS putting up that darn tree! Every branch was color coated at the end and they had to go in specific holes or it just didn't work out. Problem was we had one tree my entire life. So after decades of use you can imagine how little color at the end of the branches remained. There was much profanity involved in the assembly of our Christmas tree! :)
I don't think badly for my father about that though. I'm sure if I had to put together that wicked little thing there'd be some less than lady-like phrases spewing from my mouth! In fact when hubby and I first married and looked to purchase our first artificial tree (he's allergic to the real thing so this was a no brainer!), we got one and it was just like assembling the tree my dad used to put together. After almost an hour (if that long) of attempting to erect this monstrosity, the hubby packed it back into the box and back to K-Mart we went to exchange it for a pre-lit deal that only had three pieces to put together...and the branches were on hinges to boot! :) But this isn't about now it's about then so....
Our tree stood on a platform that my father built. About 4-inches tall, 7-feet long and 4-feet wide, the tree sat on the back portion of the platform and train tracks were set down in a large oval with an inner, smaller oval. We kids loved playing with the trains each year and decorating the platform was as exciting as decorating the Christmas tree!
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| My baby sister (baby then, not now!). You can see the baby's breath in this close up |
When I was a teenager I went to live with my mom (divorced parents) and she had a real tree. She would put baby's breath on some of the branches and it would look like the tree had snow on it!