Once upon a time...

When I was about 5 or 6 I remember watching my grampa, my Dad's father, decorate the house for the Christmas Season. He would string these cords of light bulbs in all different colors along the top of the fence and along the banister. Then he would come inside and place more cords whith bulbs in the inside frame of the frontroom windows. After he made sure all the bulbs worked, which was a job in itself, since you had to go one by one til you found which was blown, it was time to assemble the tree. Yes, assemble. He had a beautiful white Christmas tree. This tree had 3 sections which fit into each other. Once the tree was up he would then place this circular dish which had plastic lenses in greeen, yellow, red, green and I think blue. This dish had a light bulb on the inside so when he plugged it in, it would start turning and as it did it would light up the tree in all the different colors. It was a sight-to-see! Now he was done. He would go outside and admire his work. I would go with him and I remember how beautiful I thought it all looked. I remember later in life when I would go to peoples homes and notice that they had natural, or live, Christmas trees in their homes, and I would think how none of these could compare with the one my grampa put up...