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When I wuz a kid we had a real tree. The same one, year after year. For a long time I didn't know any better. We don't have any trees in North Dakota. We wuz too poor to buy a new one from out of state every year. Sure all the needles fell off ...except for a couple mummified ones. We painted the tips of bare branches green ...with borrowed paint. Christmas smelled like linseed
oil.
We decorated the tree with popcorn. And brightly colored Easter egg shells we got from the neighbors. We were too poor to afford dye for our own egg ...which we all shared at Easter. I used to sneak some popcorn off the tree til I got caught. Got nuttin for Christmas that year. Coal was for heat.
Other years, for presents, I used to get a brand new pair of shoes, li'l Abner ones, every Christmas except for a couple where we wuz too poor to buy shoes. But I got a new lace them years. Naturally I put it on my best shoe. I hadda put my best foot forward all the time. My brother got the other lace.
Them were the days. Now I gotta work on Christmas all the live long day. Don't get no respect.
Wes
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