Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Christmas Memories: Mom was always artistic and perhaps what todaywe would call “avant-garde”. It is Christmas time in 1956, and I am ready to come home from school, wait for Dad to get home, and then go out and pick a real Christmas tree. I could almost smell the pine needles.
It was 3:20 in the afternoon, my expected arrival time, so I walked through the front door. I thought we had been robbed. There was a Christmas tree-shaped thing, big and ugly, in the corner where the real Christmas tree should be.
The year is 1958, I had just entered Junior High School, and I recalled Sci-Fi movies like “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers”. This time, it was the “Invasion of the Christmas Tree Snatchers”. What had Mom wrought?
No real tree? It was like Christmas disappeared, eaten by a gigantic aluminium monster and spat out! I was sure Santa would disapprove and probably wouldn’t bring presents, Mom’s name was on the naughty list!
Squeak, rattle, wobble! The color wheel was, in itself, horrible.
To add insult to injury, Mom bought a “color wheel.” It was supposed to brighten up the tree; phooey! The only thing it did was make noise and make the ugly tree more ugly.
The aluminum Christmas tree craze began in the late 1950s, specifically around 1958-1959, when the Aluminum Specialty Company introduced its mass-produced, affordable “Evergleam” trees, becoming a huge design trend through the mid-1960s for their modern, space-age look before fading by the early 1970s.
Finally, after two years, Dad and I put our collective feet down. Mom could have her horrible creation in the living room (where no one ever went), and we had a real tree in the den (where everybody ended up).
To this day, I shudder when I see a box of aluminum foil!
We started the day by going to the gym and working out. We told our trainers to take it a little easy on us today after Monday’s beating.
We went home and got ready for lunch at Renata’s with Marshall, our Financial Advisor. We said we did great this year. The business session lasted five minutes, and the rest of the time was spent in conversation about many other topics.
Excellent food and service adjacent to the Orange Circle.
Since we were full from an excellent Italian lunch, we skipped dinner and went to the TV room after talking to Robin and Colleen.
While watching a movie, Mary worked on her latest creation. We have a before-and-after shot below.
Before
After
We were in the sack before 10:00 pm, for tomorrow is a non-stop day!
