The Christmas Tree
Brace yourselves. This story includes mass anarchy, bloodshed and tears.
Greg and I were newly married and poor as proverbial church mice. Those were lean times, and we were as skinny as our wallets, living from hand to mouth for the first few months of married life.
So when Christmas rolled around, there was very little hope for anything more than a meager holiday meal. Still, I had been saving for weeks and had socked away enough to buy a little tree.
It was a horrible indulgence for two people struggling to make ends meet, but it was Christmas, and I was anxious to start our own family traditions. This would be our first Christmas on our own. Our families were 1200 miles away and we were all alone in Texas.
Greg, a jolly fellowāeven if he was underweight, agreed that we should spend our last twenty dollars on Christmas.
We made a pilgrimage to the land of fir and holly, otherwise known as the local grocery store. The store was packed with frenzied shoppers and the lines stretched into the aisles. They were so busy they pulled the only guy they had manning the Christmas tree lot to help inside the store.
In the chaos, we finally found the store manager and he told us to go ahead and pick out our tree and heād send a clerk to ring us up.
I picked out a thick and sturdy ten dollar tree. To this day I still remember how fresh it smelled. We steered it in the general direction of our little MGB, maiming Greg in the process. I zigged. He zagged. But only the tree came out of it unscathed. As Greg sucked on his bleeding finger, we waited for the clerk to show up.
And waited, and waited.
Twice, each of us went back to find the manager and he kept promising to send someone out there. Twenty minutes later we were still waiting. I went back one more time and the manager met me halfway.
āHas anyone come out yet?ā he asked.
I shook my head.
He looked back toward the store, the lines as long as ever and then at us, two skinny kids, wide-eyed and anxious to be on our way.
āYou picked out a nice tree,ā he said, pointing at a tree that buried most of our little car.
I showed him the color-coded price tag on the tree, then handed him our only twenty dollar bill. āCan you break the twenty for me?ā
āAfraid not,ā he said. āI guess youāll have to take it home.ā
I stared at him dumbfounded, not understanding what he meant. By this time, Greg had joined us and asked if we could pay him instead.
āNope,ā the older man said. He shook Gregās hand and wished us, Merry Christmas.
I must have had tears in my eyes because everything went blurry all at once. I looked up at the store manager and thanked him. āThis is our first Christmas on our own,ā I said.
He smiled. āAnd Iāll bet itās one youāll always remember too.ā
More than thirty years later I realize nowā¦he was right.
May all your holiday memories be just as warm and kind.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
No matter where you are today, I hope it's with someone you love.
***
This is a rerun of my very first post that appeared at Samhain Publishing's blog in December 2007.So how was your Christmas? Did you get anything special--or something you really wanted?
Comments
Merry Christmas Maria to you and yours!
Time is at the top of my list for any occasion. Thanks for stopping by during Christmas.
Cate
This Christmas is turning out to be memorable--but not the way I expected. We'll see how this escapades ends tonight.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
Nice memory Maria and even nicer that 30 years ago the man understood how much that tree meant to the two of you and he was willing to do his part to make that first Christmas special by being kind to two kids!
jackie >_<
Merry Christmas to you both.
Family, good friends, health and peace of mind....I have everything I could ever want, Maria. The rest is much appreciated icing : )
Merry Merry to you and Greg!
My boyfriend got me an ipod touch! I've already wasted half an hour playing trivial pursuit (by myself). But it's a cool gadget to have for boring car rides and stuff like that.
I hope you had a wonderful, joy-filled Christmas!!!! :)
Sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas!
Love to see that there are still some folks out there who are kind and thoughtful. What a great memory.
Merry Christmas a little bit late.
Wishing you and yours a happy festive season!
word ver = ingly (it should have a 't' in front of it!)
My most memorable tree was Christmas '72. I was incredibly pregnant with our firstborn and Uncle Sam, in his infinite wisdom, had decided to transfer my active duty spouse from Ohio to California in late December. So we spent Christmas in a motel room. Not willing to give up Christmas, I made a tree by sticking styrofoam balls all over with toothpicks and stacking them in an inverted cone to get a tree shape. Then I coated the whole thing with spray snow and hung tiny ornaments from the toothpicks. If the lights were dimmed and you squinted hard enough, it really did look like a snowy white Christmas tree. I've never forgotten that one.
Angelina, Kimber: Merry Christmas, all.
Thank you for stopping by to visit me.