Once Upon A Time, Continued

The day came when Mr. Christmas Tree yearned for year round sunshine and orange groves and a Meyer lemon tree in his own backyard. He heard the siren call of surf fishing. His green thumbs wiggled in excitement at the thought of planting gardens not only in spring but in autumn too. He called his Councilors together and presented them with The Plan, the plan to migrate to Sunny Florida. His Councilor of the Household Keys agreed. She was a Sensible Woman and knew that Mr. Christmas Tree needed to expand his Horizons. His Counselor of Daughterhood agreed. She knew that a wardrobe of bikinis would be a lark. They bid two daughters' families farewell and kissed their third daughter goodbye in the halls of higher learning called College and moved far away to the Sunshine State.

Before he left, Mr. Christmas Tree turned over the Keys to the Magical Garden Center to Son-in-law and Son-in-law's Wise Elder Brother.

Son-in-law longed to become known as Mr. Christmas Tree himself. Had not he loved the Christmas Tree business from the first scent of essence of Canadian Balsam that flooded his nostrils when he accompanied his father-in-law to the railroad track where the large railroad car from Canada awaited only the railroad official's cutting of the seal to release the fragrance that could never be bottled?

Had he not spent hours in Avery County, North Carolina tagging Frazier Firs so that Customers would have prime Christmas trees? Served out his time as a Serf doing the lowly jobs such as cleaning out the garden center early in November to make way for the trees, building a flock room inside? Had he not learned from his father-in-law that a truly excellent flocked ChristmasTree could never be flocked in a tent but required a dry room, else it droop despairingly?

Had he not learned that the Customer is always right?

Had he not served out his serfdom hand-turning the Turntable for Mr. Christmas Tree to magically transform a tree from green to white, sometimes, rarely, even to blue?

Had he not bagged hundreds of Christmas trees?

Had he not at last been given the opportunity to use the magic Flock Machine himself?

Now the time had come to start up the Flock Machine for the first time himself in the wee hours of the morning. He took a deep breath, put on his mask, and began. He saw the White Christmas Trees in the showroom grow from two to three to four.

Suddenly, before he could believe his own eyes, and before the Wise Elder Brother could believe his, there appeared before them a Winter Wonderland of White Christmas Trees.

A tingle ran up the spine of the son-in-law as he saw the forest grow and felt himself becoming....

Mr. Christmas Tree!

The Wise Elder Brother felt himself becoming even Wiser.

The weather turned from sunny and warm to cold and drizzly inducing many Customers to venture forth for their Christmas Trees. Other Serfs now waited on the Ladies-in-Waiting who came from throughout the Kingdom to choose their Christmas trees while their Knights in Shining Armor warmed their hands outside by the Burn Barrel.

Hours were long and the bodies of Serfs and Wise Elder Brother and Mr. Christmas Tree grew tired.

But Wise Elder Brother and Mr. Christmas Tree's mother brought goodies from her kitchen for all to consume, and Christmas music played, and soon energy grew strong for another day.

Mr. Christmas Tree bravely, into the wee hours of the morning, climbed a 10-ft ladder to create a myriad of White Christmas Trees. For one tree he allowed the snow to fall lightly, green branches showing underneath.

For Snowdrift Trees the snow fell lightly on one side, much heavier on another side.

And there were wondrous Ice Trees where the snow fell lightly, then, while still wet, the branches were sprinkled with glittery diamonds from a bag labelled Mica Glitter.

The rarest tree of all, the most costly in the Kingdom, was the Candlestick Tree. It was so rare that it was camera shy; you must take Mr. Christmas Tree's solemn word that in every year's bounty of trees there would be one or two where the Pinecones grew proudly straight up, reaching for the sky, and shed their little Cone Petals. After their time on the Turntable with Mr. Christmas Tree they emerged appearing as if covered in Miniature Candles. It is reported that Emeralds changed hands for the purchase of such a Candlestick Tree.

Lest it be thought that only Aristocracy of the Kingdom were fortunate enough to procure a Christmas Tree from the Magical Garden Center, the two Brothers sought never to let a True Christmas Tree Lover leave without a Christmas Tree.

Congressmen, State Senators, Judges, and Mayors of the Kingdom made yearly visits to choose their trees. Floyd Crammer and Conway Twitty visited the Magical Garden Center for their Trees. The Man in Black himself, Mr. Johnny Cash, leaned his long body up against the Seed Bin while Sweet Miss June chose their yearly tree. But each year a Christmas Tree would find it way to the Schoolyard to become The Bird's Christmas Tree decorated by Schoolchildren, more would find their way into churches for Christmas Programs, and more found homes in Modest Houses of the Kingdom that lacked only a Christmas Tree for the Christmas Spirit to be complete.

Mr. Christmas Tree wishes to thank all of the Faithful Salesforce who were part of those wonderful years. And he wishes to thank his son Gurn who worked after school and on weekends at the Magic Garden Center as a Child Serf and actually sold this Pitiful Charlie Brown Christmas Tree......

Sold it for $25 to a very discerning Customer.

Your Storyteller attempted to include the following sweet memories from Mr. Christmas Tree's Only Daughter but could not do justice to her words. Therefore, here it is in her Own Words all the way from Sunny Florida:

I remember going to the garden center after school one day in the third grade and walking among what seemed like giant flocked Christmas trees, and Grandma saying, this one belonged to Mayor Fulton, that one to Conway Twitty, and feeling proud that my dad was the one they came to for the most perfect Christmas trees. Back then getting the right tree was like choosing the right piece of art for a special wall in your home. It had to be perfect, it HAD to be better than the year before! There were trees of every height sparkling in fresh soft white snow in every direction I looked. Christmas music was playing. I can still hear the soft ballad of Robert Goulet singing, "This Christmas I Spend With You" and getting goosebumps and butterflies while he sang. 

I can remember hearing customers saying, "Well, he's the best in town" and "He's expensive but worth every penny." Finally, I found Dad and he had on a funny dark green jumpsuit and a hat that covered his ears, and goggles on. I always ran to him knowing he would catch me in midair as I sprang into his arms. He said to me, "Look over there," pointing at little tiny trees against a wall. "Pick one." I pointed to one that reminded me of the perfect little tree in the animated Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer television movie special. "I'll bring it home," he said and he did, stringing lights on the branches, blue lights, ad then he flocked the tree to perfection on its own tiny tree stand. I remember Mom placing it on a chest in front of the big window in my bedroom. WOW! It was stunning!

Many times I've wished for Dad to be able to flock a tree for me again. I was putting up my own tree today, a 10' Frasier fir, listening to Christmas music on our cable seasonal music channel when that old but very familiar Robert Goulet song came on..."This Christmas I Spend With You." I found myself back in 1976 with butterflies in my stomach, wondering what magical memories will be made this year!

This is The End, but if you're wondering if there is still a Magical Garden Center, alas it is no more. In every fairy tale there has to be an ogre, and the Magical Garden Center, as did many other Mom & Pop garden centers, found it difficult to remain in business once ____ _____ and ______ moved into the Kingdom. However, bags of flock and the flocking equipment are somewhere in the barn. How we all wish for just one more tree from Mr. Christmas Tree. Perhaps there will be another story someday from the folks here at Valley View about Mr. Christmas Tree.

This post is lovingly dedicated to the memory of a lovely lady who now celebrates

Christmas with the King.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time a young man and a young woman with stars in their eyes met in the mountains of North Carolina, fell in love and married. The year was 1942. In 1943 the young husband put on an Air Force uniform, kissed his wife and baby daughter goodbye and, after basic training, was sent in November to Latrobe, Pennsylvania for college training at St. Vincent College. He spent his nights in a dormitory surrounded by men but dreamt of finding a home in Latrobe where his family could stay and be with him on Sundays. His big brother begged the ration board for tires (retreads) and gas coupons and drove the young mother and daughter from North Carolina to Pennsylvania. There among the snow-covered trees of Latrobe the young parents celebrated their first Christmas with their firstborn.

After the terrible war ended, the little girl went back to the mountains of North Carolina with her mama and daddy to spend the next two Christmases with uncles and aunts and a cousin nearby.

Christmas of 1947 found the young couple moving to Tennessee to live in a mansion--the two bedroom, one bath, newly built cottage was a mansion to the husband and his wife, their little girl and her baby sister. On each Christmas thereafter the little cottage held the freshest, largest Christmas tree that would fit in the corner of the living room because the girls' daddy had a magical job. Eleven months of the year he was an average American man working for the Kroger company buying produce for stores in their city. But come December he turned into Mr. Christmas Tree and met the railroad cars that traveled from as far away as Canada to bring Christmas trees to the Kroger grocery stores.

At first there were the two little girls to help decorate the Christmas tree, the older one with brown curly hair and the younger one with brown wavy hair. Always their were aunts and uncles and cousins around.

Then came the Christmas that there was a third little daughter, this one with blonde hair, and the year after that she was old enough to help her sisters decorate the Christmas tree, or the lower branches anyway. Santa Claus must have brought her a baby doll, probably a girl baby doll, not a boy doll named Joe like her oldest sister had asked Santa to bring.

The three little girls grew and the Christmas trees grew with them, as large as the living room would hold, finally in a new house with three bedrooms and a bath and a half. No longer did uncles have to sleep in the bathtub. But one wonderful uncle came the week before Christmas each year and took the three sisters away in his magic sleigh to visit another uncle and aunt for three magical days of cookie baking and crafts and spoiling by the two uncles and a darling, darling aunt. One year the magic sleigh was a small airplane that hurt the sisters' ears, but most of the time it was a magic train that chugged out of Union Station with the sisters and their uncle aboard, laden with wrapped packages.

Then came the year that a fourth child was born......a daughter, a second blonde just a few weeks old at Christmas. The next Christmas it was her turn to get a baby doll and see the biggest, freshest Christmas tree ever.

Four daughters! What's a father to do? Pretty soon it would become time to begin saying his goodbyes to daughters and welcoming sons-in-law, or at least to become resigned to them.

One thing the father could do was begin a new career. He could stop buying Christmas trees for the Kroger Company and begin buying them for his own garden center. Eleven months of the year he was an average American man who sold bushes and trees and mulch and fertilizer. But, oh, in the month of December he became once again Mr. Christmas Tree. This time customers not only had the choice of every green Christmas tree from Canadian balsams to Scotch pines and white pines (North Carolina Frazier Firs did not come unto later years), but they also had a choice of a fairyland of breathtaking snow-flocked Christmas trees.

A new grove of white Christmas trees appeared magically every morning, having been created by a master's touch during the night.

Ladies-in-Waiting throughout the kingdom brought their lights in for the tree of their choice, to be put on before the magician snow brushed the Christmas trees in white--blue lights, white lights, colored lights.

Tall threes, short trees, skinny trees, fat trees.

Snow-covered trees for everyone except for the four sisters. They were their father's daughters. They loved for their Christmas trees to be as green as the field from which they were cut. But, oh, the wonder of visiting and playing in the garden center full of lovely sparkly Christmas trees.

And that first son-in-law welcomed into the family of four daughters? He was busy learning to flock Christmas trees, learning it from the artist's hand.

To be continued.

Have a very merry December!