Russell Long
Centennial, CO
Category: Thoughts On This Generation

When the war broke and it's immediate financial strain pressed in on everyone, people became original and ingenious to stretch meager finances as far as possible. Christmas fell victim to budget stringencies as quickly as anything. No one could afford the cash to buy a tree to decorate. And thus my ingenious father took his family on a walk every year that we were at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and we cut our Christmas tree: a native Oklahoma cedar. That practice is carried on by my wife and I even to this very year.

Wherever we are, we make arrangements to cut our own tree, be it a cedar, pine, fir, hemlock or whatever evergreen is available. We always do it legally, but we continue my father's habit to this very Christmas.