Christmas Trees
My Grandad was always known as a bit of a troublemaker, and last Christmas my Mum was busy telling me how, when she was young, he used to pinch Christmas trees from the woods nearby rather than buy a scabby old overpriced one from the garden centre. By all accounts this was quite the family event, with Grandad taking the children out during the day to choose the perfect tree before sneaking back in the dead of night to chop it down and haul it home. Near the end of this tale, my Dad chipped in to tell me he was sure that at one point Grandad was cutting trees to order, with Grandma taking them on the bus to sell at work the next morning.

I thought my Father might have been stretching the truth slightly with the bus bit, but that didn't stop me teasing Grandma about the whole story a few days later over a cup of tea. Completely affronted by this apparent slur on her character, she simply glared back at me and snorted,

"I did nothing of the sort! I had a car by then, thank you very much!"
(Thirzah, Fri 3 Jun 2011, 21:44, Reply)