Our precious first Christmas tree
It was 1964. We had only been married a few months, and this was going to be our first Christmas. We were returning home from a weekend away and traveling north on Highway 99 one sunny Sunday afternoon.
We spotted a truck traveling south, carrying a load of freshly cut Christmas trees. Wouldn’t you know – one of the trees blew off and landed at the edge of the freeway. My new husband looked at me with a silly grin on his face. We both started laughing as he pulled off the freeway at the next exit, went over the overpass and headed back.
He stopped just in front of the tree. We had a small car and this tree was big. We opened the windows on both sides of the back seat and did our best to jam the tree into the car. We managed to get it home and then had to work at getting it to fit inside our tiny apartment. It took up most of our living room.
That first Christmas and our tree have always been a fond memory.
Jackie Garo Boyajian, Fresno
This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 8:56 AM with the headline "Our precious first Christmas tree."