Wednesday, December 16, 2020

SILVER MAGIC--A TIMELESS CHRISTMAS STORY by CHERYL PIERSON

I posted this several years ago, but it bears repeating in this hustle-and-bustle, disposable-goods world we've grown accustomed to. Let me share it with you again...

Several years ago, I had just sold my first short story to Adams Media's Rocking Chair Reader series. I was on Cloud 9! This story, SILVER MAGIC, was the 2nd story I sold to them and would appear in their first Christmas collection, Classic Christmas: True Stories of Holiday Cheer and Goodwill. I want to share it with you here. This story is true, and is one of the most poignant tales I could ever tell about my grandfather--he died when I was eleven. I never saw this side of him, and I don't think very many people did--that's what makes this Christmas story so special. I look forward to your comments!




SILVER MAGIC by Cheryl Pierson

Did you know that there is a proper way to hang tinsel on the Christmas tree?

Growing up in the small town of Seminole, Oklahoma, I was made aware of this from my earliest memories of Christmas. Being the youngest in our family, there was never a shortage of people always wanting to show me the right way to do—well, practically everything! When it came to hanging the metallic strands on the Christmas tree, my mother made it a holiday art form.

“The cardboard holder should be barely bent,” she said, “forming a kind of hook for the tinsel.” No more than three strands of the silver magic should be pulled from this hook at one time. And, we were cautioned, the strands should be draped over the boughs of the tree gently, so as to avoid damage to the fragile greenery.

Once the icicles had been carefully added to the already-lit-and-decorated tree, we would complete our “pine princess” with a can of spray snow. Never would we have considered hanging the icicles in blobs, as my mother called them, or tossing them haphazardly to land where they would on the upper, unreachable branches. Hanging them on the higher branches was my father’s job, since he was the tallest person I knew—as tall as Superman, for sure. He, too, could do anything—even put the serenely blinking golden star with the blonde angel on the very highest limb—without a ladder!

Once Christmas was over, I learned that there was also a right way to save the icicles before setting the tree out to the roadside for the garbage man. The cardboard holders were never thrown out. We kept them each year, tucked away with the rest of the re-useable Christmas decorations. Their shiny treasure lay untangled and protected within the corrugated Bekins Moving and Storage boxes that my mother had renamed “CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS” in bold letters with a black magic marker.
At the end of the Christmas season, I would help my sisters undress the tree and get it ready for its lonely curbside vigil. We would remove the glass balls, the plastic bells, and the homemade keepsake decorations we’d made in school. These were all gently placed in small boxes. The icicles came next, a chore we all detested.

We removed the silver tinsel and meticulously hung it back around the little cardboard hook. Those icicles were much heavier then, being made of real metal and not synthetic plastic. They were easier to handle and, if you were careful, didn’t snarl or tangle. It was a long, slow process—one that my young, impatient hands and mind dreaded.

For many years, I couldn’t understand why everyone—even my friends’ parents’—insisted on saving the tinsel from year to year. Then one night, in late December, while Mom and I gazed at the Christmas tree, I learned why.

As she began to tell the story of her first Christmas tree, her eyes looked back through time. She was a child in southeastern Oklahoma, during the dustbowl days of the Depression. She and her siblings had gotten the idea that they needed a Christmas tree. The trekked into the nearby woods, cut down an evergreen, and dragged it home. While my grandfather made a wooden stand for it, the rest of the family popped and strung corn for garland. The smaller children made decorations from paper and glue.

“What about a star?” one of the younger boys had asked.

My grandfather thought for a moment, then said, “I’ve got an old battery out there in the shed. I’ll cut one from that.”

The kids were tickled just to have the tree, but a star, too! It was almost too good to be true.

Grandfather went outside. He disappeared around the side of the old tool shed and didn’t return for a long time. Grandma glanced out the window a few times, wondering what was taking so long, but the children were occupied with stringing the popcorn and making paper chains. They were so excited that they hardly noticed when he came back inside.

Grandmother turned to him as he shut the door against the wintry blast of air. “What took you so long?” she asked. “I was beginning to get worried.”

Grandfather smiled apologetically, and held up the star he’d fashioned. “It took me awhile. I wanted it to be just right.” He slowly held up his other hand, and Grandmother clapped her hands over her mouth in wonder. Thin strands of silver magic cascaded in a shimmering waterfall from his loosely clenched fist. “It’s a kind of a gift, you know. For the kids.”

“I found some foil in the battery,” he explained. “It just didn’t seem right, not to have icicles.”

In our modern world of disposable commodities, can any of us imagine being so poor that we would recycle an old battery for the metal and foil, in order to hand-cut a shiny star and tinsel for our children’s Christmas tree?

A metal star and cut-foil tinsel—bits of Christmas joy, silver magic wrapped in a father’s love for his family.

This is a fantastic little anthology you might enjoy any time of year. If you'd like to read the wonderful stories in this collection, here's the link at Amazon. This is a true "bargain", but is only available from 3rd party sellers at this time as it is out of print.

AMAZON LINK: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1593375204 Have a wonderful Christmas and here's hoping 2021 will be a fantastic year for each and every one of us!

18 comments:

  1. I do love this story, Cheryl. The stories our families share of these earlier times are precious and priceless. Thank you for sharing yours. Doris

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    1. Doris, I am so glad my mom told me these stories about her childhood. I never would have thought of doing something this resourceful, and only knew my grandparents after they were old, so this was a great "look" into their lives when they were much younger. So glad you stopped by today, my friend!

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  2. Cheryl,

    What an absolutely wonderful story. Your grandpa certainly made that star with love. I recall hanging the tinsel on the tree, too. My mom recycled it year-to-year, also. We also had the colored garland strings that shed little bits of its tinsel all over the place. It didn't take many re-uses for those garlands to become threadbare in many places. We also had the glass ornaments. It seems like we lost a couple each year, because of wear and tear. I recall a glass tree topper that always ended up leaning this way and that. I remember burning my fingers on those big bulbs on the string of lights. Ouch. It's a wonder we didn't burn down the house with those things lit up on the real tree that was so dry by Christmas that the needles fell off if you barely touched the tree.

    Good times. Good memories. Merry Christmas!

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    1. Kaye, I just broke an ornament yesterday when I was decorating the tree--dropped it on the tile floor and well...you know what happened. Big ol' mess! I was just glad it wasn't one of the really old ones. We had an old, old electric angel that went on top of our tree. They bought that when my sisters were really little so it was quite old and worn by the time I came along, but we still used it all through the years. I don't know whatever happened to it. Now, I have one of those cheap plastic multi-colored stars that flashes--it was what we had when we were first married, and so when that one broke, I just always bought another one to continue the tradition. Yes, those big Christmas bulbs--how DID they keep from burning the house down on those super-dry tree branches? LOL Lots of great memories! Thanks so much for stopping by today!

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    1. Thank you, Deborah. How I wish I had written down all the things my mom told me about her earlier life through the years! So many wonderful memories.

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  4. You may not have written down all your mom's stories, but this one is priceless! We share a lot in common, Cheryl, in that we came from some mighty poor "folk" that didn't have two dimes to rub together, but they still loved and laughed and shared. I'm happy to have experienced a lot of lean years myself and also in knowing what all my grandparents and mom went through as sharecroppers in Oklahoma in the 1930s. We must preserve these memories because the younger generations have nothing of the kind to compare their lives to. Great story!

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    1. Jodi, you are so right. I often wonder if Laura Ingalls Wilder thought, "Well, I'll write all this down, but I don't think anyone will care about reading it." I wish my mom could have known that this story sold and was read by so many who enjoyed it. Thanks so much for stopping by today, Jodi. Merry Christmas!

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  5. I always enjoy your posts,. Thanks Cheryl.

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    1. Awww, thanks so much Frank! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas holiday! Glad you enjoyed this.

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  6. I miss the metal tinsel that has been replaced by that flyaway stuff that I refuse to use. I miss the old tinsel that we, too, saved carefully to use and re-use until it was beyond use. I love this story, Cheryl. This past week I've been sharing Christmas memories on my wall. I wish you and yours a lovely, Merry Christmas and a much better 2021.

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    1. Elizabeth, I miss it too! And I never in a million years thought I would say that, but I do. I saw some a few years back that was that metal kind but it was colored--red or green. No silver.

      I hope your family has a wonderful Christmas, Elizabeth! Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!

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  7. Cheryl,

    Finally got the story (WF Blog) to open. Computers.

    Thank you for sharing the story. Fooling with an old battery is not the best thing to be doing, so your grandfather did double duty.

    Memories, nostalgia, so precious and when remembered, told, or written down, it brings one to their knees. They are so very precious.

    (Too bad the anthology is out of print. Just get the writers to give up the royalties, donate to Western Fictioneers and put it back in print?)

    Thanks Cheryl. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays for everyone in the time of the virus and economic hardship. Stay safe!

    Charlie Steel

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    1. Hi Charlie, I loved writing for those Adams Media anthologies. There were quite a few I contributed to, and they were along the lines of Chicken Soup anthologies. But what a lot of wonderful stories!

      I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Thanks so much for coming by and "endeavoring to persevere" until you got the blog to open up so you could read and comment! LOL XOXO

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  8. That was a beautiful story, Cheryl. Thanks for sharing. And Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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    1. Thanks, David. I'm so glad you stopped by to read. Thanks again for the kind words. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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  9. Lovely story! I remember those old icicles too ... and reusing them! Worst job ever.

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    1. LOL YES! It was truly the worst job ever! I hated that with a passion. What I wouldn't give NOW for some of those heavier, substantial icicles instead of these plastic things that fly away all over the place. Thanks for the kind words, JES. Merry Christmas!

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