Judi and the Charlie Brown Tree
I had my work computer re-imaged recently (we're hoping it boots out the ghost that seems to be residing within it). I furiously emptied it of excess documents including a ton of old pictures. Somehow when I opened up iPhoto for the first time however there were a number of even older pictures in there....I don't know if it pulled them from elsewhere on the computer or what but I was surpised to see them---some I hadn't seen in ages!
Some of them just made giggle.....classic pictures of the boys, or Leo's mug shot...or Owen sleeping with a Nerf gun....
There were also a handful of old pictures of my sister Judi–including one with the famous Charlie Brown Christmas tree. While I was in grade school my father went through a grueling couple of years with numerous neurosurgeries. One year he had to be in the hospital over Christmas so my parents bought a fake tree so they could put it up earlier (at least that's how I remember it....tell me if I'm wrong Debbie). So that year Judi, who always had um....STRONG opinions shall we say, decided we should go and get the most pathetic real tree we could find and decorate it....our very own Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Debbie was old enough that she could drive us so off we went to Wannamaker's on Ogden Avenue, where we always got our Christmas trees. Judi hunted and hunted....finally finding one in a pile that was so pathetic that when she strode up to the booth to ask how much it was they laughed and told her she could have it. Debbie hovered in the background somewhere between mortification and hysteria. I thought the whole thing quite thrilling.
We brought it home and put it in a stand and left it on the patio for awhile. Now when my mother and Debbie laughed at something they could set each other off and laugh themselves silly. NOBODY could get my mother laughing like Debbie. So when my mother rounded the corner and saw that pancake flat tree she started giggling, Debbie began giggling.....and off they went. It was one the classic family moments that was often recalled and talked about later....you know how you have the same family stories that always pop up?
Judi got the tree set up in the family room and we used leftover ornaments on it and by the time we were done it was gorgeous and of course we far preferred it to the fake tree in the living room. That was the year I got a slot car set and our neighbor Mr. Clark came over to set it up for my mother since my Dad wasn't home.
I am so pleased that I found this picture, slightly blurry though it is, of Judi and the Charlie Brown tree. There's the dollhouse that my Dad made in the background....the marionettes hanging in front of the picture window, play dough and games on the shelf, and the creche where we always put it on the window seat (complete with a new sheep every year). Christmas at the Voelkl's....hmmmm I would have been maybe second or third grade....1970ish I guess.... I miss my sister so much but it gives me joy to think of her. What an unexpected gift to come blasting at me on a gloomy Monday morning as I sat down at the computer.