The DU Lounge

Somehow we always managed to get one with a crooked trunk so that when my Dad brought it in the house and put it in the stand, it leaned to one side,so he’d either have to take it back outside and cut some more off the bottom or try to clamp it down in the tree stand at an angle. For some reason my mother insisted the tree stand had to sit atop an old washtub that we covered with a white sheet. Much debating, arguing, etc. about whether or not the tree was straight in the stand and rotated properly to hide any bare spots. Every year we got to hear my Dad cuss and swear, lying on the living room floor halfway under the tree, while my mother gave directions. “Turn it towards the window. No, it’s still,crooked. That side has a bare spot and has to go against the wall,”. etc. finally after my sister and I heard a whole bunch of new swear words, the tree was ready for the lights, which was another pain in the ass because if one light went out, the whole string went out on those old light strings. Much searching for the box of spare bulbs that no one remembered where they put. Finally the tree was up, and the lights were on and properly working. My Grandma always supervised the decoration and the tinsel distribution. Then finally the little ceramic house village was set up on the white sheet under the tree that was supposed to simulate snow. Each ceramic house had a hole in the back where you stuck in a bulb from yet another string of lights. Once it was all done and we turned on the lights in the evening, with the tree lights, the tinsel, and the lighted houses in the “snow” village underneath, it was the most beautiful sight in the world to me as a child.