Aluminum Christmas Tree

June wind is different than November wind. June wind is a day at the beach if you are outside sweating pulling weeds as it’s cooling by evaporation. If your mind will behave, you can believe you are tanning on the sands of Laguna — especially if the wind-chimes chime and inspire meditation.
November brings invisible trails of Santa’s coming dust. It’s not so easy to think of beach sand and tans but easy enough to believe you’re on a tailwind, going to the north pole to visit his workshop — while remaining standing in the garden hailing his sleigh.
It starts the craving for the Aluminum Christmas tree and getting it out to set up to stare at — except for the darned cats. But it could have its own room, closed in behind a door that they can’t get through so that’s that — out it shall come at last.
1965, the year Charlie Brown ruined their popularity, was the very same year that an eleven-year old spent a night babysitting, being entertained by one instead of television. Pure magic as the color wheel went round and round, blending colors that reflected off the shiny, silver metal branches — effectively putting her into a trance whereby time went by very, very fast.
It’s uncanny, the impact such a thing can have.
Somewhere in the 90s, one was sitting in a vintage shop high on a shelf, glaring, just waiting for that eleven-year old’s memory to kick in and make her want to buy it. She had to have it — there was no doubt about it — there was something about that memory that she wanted to grab back.
It’s better known now that trying to evoke a memory is living in the past and sometimes that’s not necessarily good. It seems, though, that if a memory’s good it should not be a bad thing to hang onto and try to drag it up with a collection of shiny artifacts.
What’s the gist?
So it seems that it’s part of human nature to be able to recall good memories easier than bad ones and that it might be part of a survival strategy. It helps bad memories fade into the background if there are others that are good enough to dwell on.
What was that eleven-year-old girl trying to forget? What is she now trying to remember that she did forget?
Well, maybe it was as simple as forgetting that someone so good as Charlie was the culpit of the demise of Aluminum Christmas trees and that all those years later it would cost so much to finally have one — except that, she had no clue. She didn’t go looking for one then — she just knew she would eventually want one, if and when she could.
It may just be better that she did forget whatever it is that the tree now supplants and she should now forget about trying to remember what she so long ago forgot. Just get the darned tree out and enjoy it.
Sometimes something can just be too much to think about and it’s better to leave it, where it was left.