Growing Up In Small Town America Part 19

 PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS

                                                            My Beautiful Sister 1967

I have vivid memories of Christmas, more especially from the time that we moved into our home on Bismark Street. As a family we would go down to the Optimist Club Tree lot and pick out a Christmas tree. It was always cold weather. Daddy would place it in the tree stand, and then on the weekend, he would flock the tree. This was a process that caught on in the 60s. General Mills marketed Sno-Flok home kits, to be applied using a gun that attached to a vacuum cleaner. He would flock the tree white, I suppose to look like snow. We decorated it with LOTS of white lights and red balls. I thought the tree was magical as we displayed it in our front bay window. People would drive by to admire it. Later on, Daddy learned of a nursery in Wichita Falls that flocked trees, and we would drive over and select a tree from them. At that point, we began choosing green flocking and used yellow lights and gold balls. The trees became bigger and more elaborate as time passed. For a short time, we tried the aluminum tree with a revolving light illuminating it in different colors. Mother began decorating a smaller tree in the den with child-like decorations which I began to take over the older that I got. It is a tradition that I continue to this day. I am very fond of the old fashioned trees. Derek and I decorate our tree with our first year handmade dough ornaments, our yearly ornaments, Mother’s handmade stuffed ornaments, and the ornaments we collected on our travels through 23 countries.

1965 - below

1966 - below

1973 - below

The Novelty Tree that I took over when I got older. I was seeking approval from my best friend, Pal. Pal was my dog (who adopted me). He followed me everywhere and it was the first dog that Mother allowed inside.