Christmas Time can bring back a lot
of memories.
One of my favorite, is the "perfect tree."
For Years my one brother and I, the youngest two in a large
family, always went with
our father to pick out a tree
at a local tree farm.It was something we always
anticipated
with much excitement.
When I was about 11 and my brother
about 14,
we had a very heavy snow fall which made getting
anywhere a problem except for
the main highways.
That did not stop Papa.
Oh No. He was a determined man .
We were
welcome to come
along but were to be aware that we would be walking
much farther
this year.
That was a huge understatement!
The
snow was so high you did not walk, you shuffled ,
making a crevice patch as you went
along.
The snippy wind did not help.
We made our way back to the field
at the tree farm exhausted
and panting from the snow and snowball fights along the way.
The three of us went our own way circulating the trees
for the proper view when shortly my
brother called out,
"Here it is! It's perfect!" Papa and I rushed (as best we
could)
to where he was attempting to jump up and down in excitement.
He was right. It was beautiful!
just the right size
for our lake cottage . It's lovely bluepine branches were placed
as if to mirror each other, layer upon layer,
Spaced perfect for ornaments.
Papa dug through the snow to clear
enough to saw
the trunk and we huffed and puffed dragging the tree over
our already fading
footpath to the plowed parking area..
We sang carols all the way home with the scent
of
fresh pine filling our nostrils from the back of the car.
When we arrived home, mom had made
a fresh batch of cocoa to warm
us and laid
out a plate of fresh baked sugar and
molasses cookies.
While we sorted through the ornament box, papa dug out the big
old tree
stand and fastened it to the bottom of the tree.
He stood the tree in the living room
corner near
the front window. OH! NO! we gasped.
the tree was perfect all right. a perfect
40-45 degree angle!
It jutted out toward the sofa threatening to topple any moment.
Papa sighed and told us all to calm
down.
"it just needs a little trimming at the trunk.
he said confidently. well,
two hours later , many tries and
a lotof trimming we finally had the perfect
"little" tree.
Everyone sat back
and stared at the small imitation
of what we
started with.
We never had many ornaments so by
the time the tree
was trimmed it was nicely covered. Mom popped popcorn,
got out her fresh
made fudge and some
crisp apples from the well pit and we turned all the other lights
out
and admired the beauty of our hard work.
The problem was, every time a close
friend or relative
stopped in they
would look at the tree,
then at papa and smile a wicked
grin and say,
"well Joe, I see you finally got a tree your size!
yes sir. No need for
a ladder for the star this year!"
Papa would mumble something
under his
breath and slump away to his workshop.
You see papa was 5 foot3 in his
shoes!
