December 4

My parents were married in October 1960 after a 4 month courtship. Even though they had met before (my dad and my uncle - mom's brother - went to college together), it seems like they fell hard thanks to the bridesmaid / groomsman pairing at my uncle and aunt's wedding. "He was the only one that would talk to me like I had an actual brain", my mom would tell me when she talked about meeting my dad. She had her bachelors in education and had recently gotten her nursing license.  Her goal was to become a nursing instructor. My dad was in medical school as well as in the US Air Force at the time. "Oh, and he danced - he was such a fantastic dancer...And the jokes your uncle and he would play - sheesh. Get your father and my brother together and watch out!" she would laugh and shake her head at the memories of when they were in their 20's. 

Every Christmas she would tell me some version of my parent's first Christmas together - they were in Philadelphia and living on a medical student stipend and didn't have any ornaments for their first tree. They went to the local shop (probably a five and dime) and came home with a box of these little gumdrop people to hang on the branches. They sparkled and brought some fun to their "rather sparse" tree, as my mother phrased it. 

This is one of the 2 remaining gumdrop guys. When my mom was working on her "official" retirement downsizing (nurses never retire - even when recovering from massive heart attacks in the hospital, they still constantly analyze the equipment and whatnot) and clearing out the years of accumulated ornaments, she sent me the 2 gumdrop guys that survived through the years.

Neither my husband nor my kids got to meet my dad - he passed away when I was 10. My mom telling me stories and me asking questions that I already knew the answers to year after year was a way to include him in our fun. My retelling of the stories to my own family has become my way of sprinkling the little that I really knew of my dad in, as well as bringing my mom back to join in our traditions - the girls only have faint memories of her since she passed when they were pretty small, as well.  

Hopefully each of my girls will want to have one for their own trees one day and enjoy pulling them out and regale some sort of version of their grandparents and early Christmas times rich with memories. 

So, there ya go - the story of the gumdrop guy. Nothing too spectacular, but stories and warm memories that out number the little sugar crystals wrapping the guy up - the ones that countless times evoked the thought of "I wonder would happen if I licked it" and my mother's warning grumble from the other side of the tree coming through, "Don't even think about it, kid". Ah, Christmas memories :-)