When I think of Christmas trees, several memories come to mind:
The tear jerking scene in
Swiss Family Robinson when Mrs. Robinson breaks down over the harpsichord. It's Christmas Eve, and she's sure that her sons were sent of on some fool's errand in the name of exploration. Just as she's about to give into utter-dispair, she hears the faint singing in the distance of her two sons, Fritz & Ernst, and the femme-fatale Roberta/Bertie who almost broke the brothers apart.
Swiss Family Robinson was rabidly watched in our house and it's not hard to see why: it involves things kids love - pirates, tree houses, booby traps, tigers, coconut bombs... and gender trickeroos. Ok, kids don't really love that but seriously, any movie industry types looking for the next blockbuster need to remake that movie in a hurry. Guaranteed smash hit.
Also what's kind of weird, that movie was made in 1960 but I could've sworn that Wil Wheaton played Ernst. There's no possible way that could've happened. But in my head, the two actors are exactly the same. See my comparison below.
Identical right? For those of you who don't know Wil Wheaton by name, he played
Ensign Crusher in StarTrek: The Next (best in my opinion) Generation, and Gordy LaChance in the ultimate coming of age movie,
Stand By Me.
I've really digressed.
The other memory that Christmas trees bring is the story my dad tells when he brought a sickly sapling into our living one room as a "joke." Note, my dad's jokes on frugality are/were strongly grounded in reality, so you can see why the punchline was muddled. Anyway, he brought in this hideous tree we dubbed the
Charlie Brown tree because it was so pathetic. My dad claims that when I saw it I cried. Also, I was probably 12. This definitely didn't happen, but I did cry when he gave me a haircut with a pair of rusty garden shears from the 40's that were probably meant to "thin" hair as opposed to actually cut it.
Getting ugly trees actually became a tradition that we really enjoyed. Some years we'd go into the national forest and
poach reclaim a tree that probably was going to die because it was growing too close to another tree. We'd do it in the middle of the night - super fun. That was Ashley's first introduction to Pulsipher Christmas tree hunting actually - sneaking into the woods and cutting down a tree.
So much fun.
This year we started a new tradition. We went with Chad and Kimber to go hunt for trees. Chad is somewhat of an expert on trees, and Kimber is advanced in delicate tree care (they put ice cubes in their tree bowls!).
After some thorough hunting... we found a little guy that suited our humble home. The great place about this lot was that it included stands, so we wouldn't have to buy one. But the true piece de resistance of the night was strapping our little tree into my bicycle trailer and riding home.
It was really awesome. I have to admit, one of the really fun things about owning/using a bicycle trailer is seeing the look on people's faces as I ride past. It's almost as if I can see them thinking, "wow, why don't I try that" or "that looks like a lot of fun." Maybe they are thinking, "that guy is a world class loser." Who knows? I do know that I get an immense amount of satisfaction in doing things on a bike that most people would use a car for.
The night was a huge success - and we spread holiday cheer in the process. As we crossed the street cars started honking in celebration and one guy yelled out "Merry Christmas!"
What are your Christmas tree tales?
A friend of mine runs one of the best blogs covering the "livable streets" movement in Los Angeles County. During the holiday season he wanted to take a break - so he conducted a bunch of interviews to fill the dead time. I was fortunate to be one of the interviewees. You can read it here:
