Lone Locust Productions

Day: December 4, 2005

  • Humbug Tree


    OK, so I’ve never really come up with a good, non-religious name for the good old fashioned Christmas tree. “Holiday Tree” just doesn’t have much pizzazz.

    Did you realize that Christmas Trees are really not all that old? The first known one in England was Queen Victoria’s. In fact, that whole Dickensian Christmas thing was a cynical ploy to try to stop poor people from rioting at Christmas time.

    The New York City Police Department was established because of such Christmas riots. (It really sucked to be poor during the Industrial Revolution.)

    There’s a fascinating documentary on the History of Christmas that comes on the History Channel (or one of those) every year about this time that really puts the whole thing in perspective. It’s odd how dispelling all those Christmas myths actually puts me in the holiday mood.

    In any case, he we all are with our holiday festive season tree, completely unadorned as we just brought it home today.

    It’s for the kids, really, and it is a live tree.

    In our back yard, we have two other surviving holiday trees. Irene’s and my first tree, and Michelle’s holiday tree.

    The tree on the table behind us is James’ first holiday tree.

    You know, looking at this picture, I realize I should have had everyone stand on boxes. (Actually, Michelle is on a chair.)


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  • Considerate People

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    I haven’t been feeling well the last few days, but we managed to get out for a while today and take Michelle to the park. It was such a nice day that it felt good to get out of the house and breathe some (almost) fresh air.

    When we arrived at one of the playground areas it was empty except for two older people (one of whom is pictured here) going through the sandpit with metal detectors.

    When I was a kid, my dad had a metal detector and, on one occasion, at a park near our old home in Tucson I found nearly $14 in coins. That was at least 25 years ago, and I suspect I was the first person to ever search that park because it certainly never happened again.

    In any case, these people were going over the whole area diligently.

    Of course, I’m not mentioning this to congratulate them on their perseverance. I’m mentioning it because as they detected things, they had nifty sand filtering shovels that made it easy for them to dig up the items and clean the sand off.

    They didn’t find anything of value, just trash and such, which they promptly tossed back into the sandpit. The inconsiderate SOBs!

    I went around after they left and picked up all the stuff they’d uncovered and put it in the trash. It would have been so easy for them, but it probably never occurred to them to do something for somebody else.

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