As I sit here and write this blog a lot of stories come to mind about Christmas' long ago. One story that comes to mind is of my grandfather and I hanging Christmas lights outside. As I told in a previous story we had two Blue Spruces in the front and back yard that we would decorate with lights and this story is about one of those times.
My grandfather hadn't been able to climb ladders for many years, and my uncles weren't available so we, meaning he, decided that we could hang the lights this year, I was 11 years old at the time. I made my way to the shed and grabbed the ladder. As I lean the ladder into the tree I see the first problem. The tree is about 12 ft high and the ladder was only 6 ft. I needed to get the lights all the way to the top of the tree. How was I supposed to get to the top?
Well my grandfather said it was doable. I keep moving the ladder around the tree, per my grandfathers instructions, trying to set the ladder up so that I can climb as high as possible. If you have never seen a Blue Spruce tree it looks like this....
The problem with this tree is that the tips of the needles are very sharp and they poke into your clothing, well they poked into mine. By the time I got to the top of the ladder I felt like a pin cushion, and still couldn't get all the way up to the top. As hard as I tried it was not happening. Finally my grandfather told me to climb down. Once down he went to climb the ladder. I told him, "if you climb that ladder I'm telling grandmother."
You see, by this time in his life grandfather had many medical issues and one of them was gout in both legs so wasn't able to climb the ladder. I bet he would have given it a shot if I hadn't threatened him with the one person that he didn't want to know. He looked at me and said "why do you have to tattle on me?" It was cold and it felt like we had been out there forever, when we had probably only been out there for about 1 1/2 hours. Grandfather finally decided that we would leave those trees for my uncles to do and we would handle all of the other lights that would go around the house.
Once we got inside grandmother had hot chocolate ready for us. I never did tell, until I related the story to my grandmother many years after my grandfather passed. She laughed and said "Thank you".
More stories to come....
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