First Christmas

The dishes were done, and the dining table sparkled from just being polished. I stepped back from the table to admire the combination living room and dining space. The beige and floral print living room furniture was brand new.  The table and chairs were hand me downs from my sister and were placed in front of the wall that was covered in wall paper that featured a beach scene.  The chairs had been reupholstered in red vinyl. I was proud of our first apartment.

It was about 1:00 p.m. and the afternoon stretched ahead with no definite plan.

“You’re going in today?” I asked Eddie

“Yeah, sorry,” he said. “Henry has us working like crazy to get these drawings done for this new client next week.  It will just be for a few hours. I’ll be back by 4 or so.  We can go to a movie later,” he added smiling. 

“I think I’ll go to Woolworths and buy some Christmas decorations and ornaments,” I said.  “Maybe tomorrow we can go buy a tree.” 

“You know, there’s a little store near our office,” he said. “We could go there and take a look at the trees.”   

It was the first weekend in December and I was excited about  Christmas—our first Christmas together.

We kissed goodbye and went our separate ways. Once outside, I realized I had bundled up a little too much. The temperature outside was warmer than I expected, the sky was a crystal blue. I was in good spirits as I walked away from our block of connecting pre- war buildings up the hill past the dry cleaner and supermarket. Slightly off in the distance, I could see the brown brick buildings of Parkchester, the city within a city in the Bronx built just before World War II.  Many of the buildings had sculptures of people on the exteriors—mothers with young children, men laboring, even clowns.

I crossed the busy intersection and entered the main shopping area on East Avenue. I passed Womrath’s, the bookstore where I came with my brother in the eighth grade to buy a copy of Of Mice and Men. Next to that was the Selby shoe store.  I loved these stores.  The lettering on the store signs had a nostalgic look, like store fronts that you’d see in TV programs from the 1950s and 60s. It made me feel like I was back in time.

Salvation Army volunteers rang their bells in front of Macys and passersby tossed their coins or placed bills in the iron till that hung from a tripod. I walked past and crossed the street over to Woolworths. 

I began browsing on the street level.  I always went to the cosmetic section, looking at bottles of Cover Girl “clean” makeup, Angel Face pressed powders and blushes, and Maybelline eye shadows in various hues. Mod Sixties fashions had made a comeback and I examined bangle bracelets of varying widths in the jewelry area.  I purchased fuchsia pink and lime green bangles to go with a black, striped tunic dress that was one of my favorite things to wear to work. Pleased with my ability to accessorize for the New Wave look, I proceeded downstairs to choose some ornaments for our first Christmas tree.

Bins in the center of the floor glittered with packs of silver and blue tinsel, next to stiff-looking garland. There were boxes of blue, red, green and pink glass ornaments, some frosted with white glitter.  Those caught my eye. Growing up, the ornaments on our silver tinsel tree were red and white satin-covered balls, which would never break.  Glass ornaments were elegant, classic, like the ornaments on Christmas trees from films and TV shows of the 1960s. I picked up several boxes.  I also picked up a little Santa ornament and a happy little mouse on skis. This little mouse now gets top billing at the top of each year’s Christmas tree.

The next day Eddie and I drove to Mamaroneck.  We had lunch on the main street and then walked over to the household goods shop.  It was a no-frills store. There was a four-foot tree on display and we told the sales person we wanted to buy it. She went to the back and brought out an appropriately sized box. 

When we got home I couldn’t wait to set up and start decorating our first tree.  Eddie got a small knife from the kitchen and sliced through the tape at the top of the box.  He pulled out a small box from the top.  We both thought it was the stand.  When he opened it up, inside was a small tree, about two feet tall.  We looked at each other puzzled.  He pulled out the next box and opened it to find another little tree. There were four more tiny trees and we started to laugh. 

“Hey I could make a little money,” he said. “I could sell these on the corner and make a quick 60 bucks. I was laughing so hard, tears were rolling down my cheeks. 

The next day, we got into our green Datsun and went back to Mamaroneck to return the little trees.  Then we drove to JC Penney. Before paying, we asked the salesperson to open the box so we could double check our tree.