Check it out - not just one rotating color light for the tree, but two!

My pal Angela did the Christmas interiors for us that year. The artfully strewn red ribbon on the tree is her creation, as is the angel hair-shrouded thing on top of the curio cabinet. Also on the top of the cabinet, and partially covered by the "Pa" figurine, is an aerosol can of what I call "tree stink." A can of evergreen-scented room freshener, you sprayed it on your California fake tree to give it the semblance (well, the smell) of life.

In our first Christmas in the house - 1965 - Dad brought home an aluminum tree that was simply awesome. When the color wheel rotated to red or yellow, it looked like it was on fire. But that wasn't the most notable tree in my household by far, oh, no. That would have to be the Christmas tree of 1962 that Mom made. She got some rebar (those rippled iron rods that builders use to reinforce concrete) and fashioned a bird cage sort of shape. She then hung colored lights around it, draped the whole thing with scratchy fiberglass angel hair and suspended our Christmas ornaments in each little square. This was then hung from the ceiling at the window and pronounced to be our Christmas tree! I made a rocket ship out of it after the thing was thrown into the back yard. My main regret is that I don't have a photograph of the thing because nobody believes me when I tell this story. (They haven't looked at this web page.)

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