Christmas Trees from the 60's

My sister has been texting me recently. We were reminding each other in a nostalgic sort of way how during this time of the year Christmas preparations began.

The Tree

Growing up we never had a tree early. There were many reasons for this. Dad's most effective reason was that the tree (natural of course) represented a major fire hazard in the house. They needed to be watered and monitored with regularity. Every year there were reports of houses burning down because of the tree catching fire.

Trees cost less when it got closer to Christmas. Our family was not a family that got Christmas bonuses and saved significantly for the holiday. We had time off but not much money. Teachers even in South San Francisco were not major shoppers during Christmas. Trees in the 60's cost upwards to 20 dollars then. If we waiting until the last week dad could negotiate a half price tree for us. 12 dollars was our upward limit.  Waiting late in the season when the trees were already cut significantly increased their fire hazard which played into the fears of  represented in the first paragraph.

Artificial trees were out of the question. They were very pricy and were not convincing in the 60s. Notable was the arrival of the aluminum tree that was always set up to rotate in the window with a multiple gel colors rotating on it sending the tree to exotic blues to electric reds within a period of just two minutes. And then there were the flocked trees. Don't get me started!

Grandpa, mom's dad would arrive in December with Grandma on the train. The men (sometimes including me) would head down to the industrial part of South San Francisco or cruise the vacant lots that suddenly sprung up as mini forests. Grandpa would look them over after dad had found a few candidates. Negotiations for price would ensue. Some lots would not lower their prices. We got back in the cars and headed to another. A scrawny left over tree was usually our fate. We usually got a fir, as the magnificent blue spruce trees were clearly out of our price range.

One year dad thought that the prices were entirely too high.  He climbed up on the steep 5hill above our house that had the landslide. He thinned out a couple of trees that he thought that he had planted too close together. The were pines. He planted them there so that their roots would hold the soil and protect us from another landslide. They were about 5 feet tall  sticky from head to toe.  After looking them over, he got out his electric drill and sunk some holes in them and screwed lag bolts in the holes to bolster their strength. There was a gigantic hole in the branches where the two trees were joined together.  A casual observer could see the splice. He spent the rest of the season congratulating himself on his cleverness and how the trees were perfect. I bet he would remember today if you asked him about the trees that he put together with his drill.

Grandparents Arrive

December the rain comes to Northern California. Sometimes it rains without letting up for days on end. This rain was also the reminder that Grandma and Grandpa were heading to see us. We often would see them in the summer and help with the peach harvest in their 30 acre orchard in Colorado. December would be their turn to get out of the cold and snow and get on the train, the California Zephyr in Grand Junction and head over the mountains in Utah and Nevada and see all of us in [sunny] California. Its sleek stainless steel cars with the observation domes were the ultimate in cross country travel. We had great times together.

We would often go into the city and go to basketball games together. I was a major fan of the pro team, the San Francisco Saints.  They would perform down at civic center in the city.  Later they would become the Warriors and would move across the bay and play in Oakland.

We would get fresh crabs down by the wharf and have them cracked and cleaned for us.  Mom would make her famous minnestrone soup and we would feast on the famous french bread that made San Francisco famous.

The grandparents would be picked up at the ferry building in the city. We would slip back a couple of days later and pick up their luggage at the same spot. There would be fewer people in the car so that we had room for their enormous steamer trunks they traveled with. Grandma would pack mulitiple pounds of apples in the trunks along with special Christmas presents for the grandchildren.  My sister reminded me that their gifts were often wrapped with multiple layers of white tissue paper with a spritz of glitter thrown in.

Christmas with the Grandparents was always special. Mom missed her parents all the year when we were in California and when they arrived it was always something special for her.

Best Wishes for your Personal Memories this Holiday Season

: ) Pat