The Traveling Christmas Tree.

For us, Christmas 1955 was like that old cowpoke sidekick -- Slim Pickens. I had been working for a company that manufactured homes and a couple of weeks before Christmas, an entire wall with window section fell and caught my foot, breaking both my bones and our budget.

I was really thankful that the wall hadn't squashed me, but it had squashed any hopes for a prosperous Christmas. My wife was eight months pregnant. I was out of a job and soon to be out of our apartment. Any extra cash we had for Christmas went for the doctor bills and my last paycheck was used for food.

Luckily, we had already purchased a Christmas tree. With its bright lights and tinsel, it provided about the only Christmas cheer we had that year. Of course, as fate would have it, our rent was due the day of my injury and our landlord wasn't exactly the understanding type -- heck, he wasn't even the Christian type. He had no problem serving us with an eviction notice that ran out the day before Christmas!

Scrambling around town, I managed to get a job and an apartment. I was hired to manage an apartment complex across town. As I hobbled around loading our belongings into the car I was grateful that we didn't own much. But we did own that Christmas tree, and I sure wasn't going to leave it behind!

We didn't know anyone with a truck so I figured I could fit it in the back seat of our old '46 Ford. It fit, except for the last two feet or so, which stuck out the window.

I got a lot of funny looks as I drove down Main Street with a Christmas tree for a passenger, complete with lights and ornaments, tinsel blowing and the tree topper tilting in a joust with the wind.

Mr. Norris moved to Carson City in 1982 from Colorado Springs. He has lived in Stagecoach for the past seven years. He is a semi-retired truck driver and enjoys travel, movies and quiet times. He enjoys taking drives, walks and horseback riding.