Disclaimer: everything contained in this blog is MY OPINION. Every attempt is made to present the truth through actual facts or to identify statements which are in doubt; otherwise there will be no deliberate presentation of gossip, rumor, or innuendo which can't be proven as factual.
Years past, my family went to the Hudsons' every Christmas and the Robbs for New Years for decades.
Our gift to the Hudsons was a large decorative centerpiece which would be placed in the center of the dining table surrounded by the good china, crystal, and silver. The tree was decorated with real metal tinsel and lights made in Germany in the shape of dolls, nutcrackers, trees, candy canes, etc.
We would arrive early, and mid-afternoon, while the women cooked and gossiped in the kitchen and the men told tall tales in the living room, someone would take me to the Grand Theater to see a movie or a cartoon. Sometimes we were the only ones there. We'd get back just in time for eggnog and a sumptuous dinner.
New Years Eve was entirely different. My mother always bought huge glass jars with patterns moulded into the glass, and filled with hard candy at Goldsmith's, and gave one to the Robbs for Christmas. The jar would be open and displayed next to their fabulous pink net Christmas tree in one corner of the living room. I loved that tree. Dink and Violet were wonderful cooks, and Dink's famous punch would be at the end of the dining table, with a smaller bowl of it for kids. I felt so grown up when I came home from college the first time for the holidays, and was allowed to have some of the REAL punch!
I'm glad to have had a childhood that included such traditional celebrations.
Towns used to really decorate at Christmas. Tinsel-wrapped wreaths, candles, Santa faces, elves, trees, candy canes were attached to the tops of telephone and electric poles through downtown and often colored lights were strung across the streets. Lots of money was spent on the decorations, and they were carefully taken down after New Year's and packed away for the next year.
With the end of World War II, people were in the mood to be expansive and celebrate. The city fathers decided to do something new and fancy with the street decorations. Together with the chamber of commerce, they started looking for something every other town nearby would envy.
They decided on giant tinsel. And it was expensive. School kids went door to door collecting money and various sales and fund raisers were held. About $3000 was eventually raised.
But this was not just ordinary tinsel. This was inch-wide, 5 inch long strips of aluminum. It would surely be the talk of the county! However, the sponsors were worried about the persistent wind here, and communicated their concern to the tinsel manufacturer. They were assured that this tinsel had been "tested in Chicago and survived!"
Since Chicago was far-famed at that time for being the windiest city in the USA, the city fathers thought the tinsel had passed the acid test, and took what was then a great deal of money and bought it. Yards and yards of it.
At Thanksgiving that year, the tinsel was hung in swags from the electrical and telephone poles across the downtown streets. Here and there colored lights were reflected in a rainbow of Christmas colors. It was lovely.
However, shoppers were soon greeted with a windstorm of aluminum strips. Then stores started to experience mysterious electrical failures. It was a considerable puzzle until city workers discovered that a few of the wind torn strips were working their way through narrow slits in the metal covers of junction and relay boxes on top of the poles and shorting out the electricity.
After the initial annoyance at the tinsel's failure to hold up to the manufacturer's assurances, Electra became sort of proud: our wind had beat out Chicago's wind!
Anita Huguelet McMurtrie
