A Tree-mendous Christmas Memory
There was a time in our not so distant past that a person could go out into a grove where pine trees grew wild and harvest one for himself. The person would cut the tree that he wanted and haul it home. It wasn’t quite stealing, but it came very close. These unclaimed trees were always fresher and cheaper than going to a Christmas tree sales lot to purchase one.
A friend was doing just that. He and his wife drove their car to get an evergreen for the Yuletide season. Once he and his axe were out of the car, his wife sped away with plans to return to collect him and the newly acquired tree. The friend would recognize it was his wife with the signal that she would flash the headlights on her return. He would hurry back to the road with his prize, he would quickly load it into the car, and they would drive away. The trunks of cars were much larger then and unless the tree was huge, it would fit inside the car’s trunk with only the tip of the pine peeking out from the tied down lid. If the tree was too large for the trunk it could be tied to the car’s sturdy steel roof for the short trip home.
It was a cold day and my friend was warmly dressed in his red and black Woolrich pants, coat, and hat. The thick Woolrich clothing was the accepted winter and hunting clothing of that time period. Having cut the tree, he squatted on a bank above the road to watch for his wife’s return. When headlights of an oncoming car flashed, he hopped down onto the roadway only to find that it wasn't his wife.
The oncoming car had rolled over a bump in the road and the headlights only appeared to flash. He told me that the surprise on the driver's face looking out of the car’s windshield was impressive when he suddenly leaped onto the roadway. Can you imagine the surprise of the man as he drove along and saw a man clad from head to his foot in red at Christmastime carrying an evergreen tree in one hand and an axe in the other unexpectedly pop into view? My friend said the driver of the car slammed on his brakes then swerved the car to avoid hitting my friend and sped away. I really like this story and may be an annual post at Christmas.