This past Saturday, Jeff and I went down to Portland for the day to have lunch with some old friends, drop in on a couple of craft fairs that were in town and to go to the new Trader Joe's that opened recently. On the way down, we decided to listen to some Christmas music, so I pulled out one of my old cassettes (yes, our car is old enough to still have a cassette player in it instead of a CD player.)
The tape was worn in places so the music wavered off key a bit, especially on the high notes, but because it was all Christmas carols, we had no trouble humming and singing along. When the song "O Christmas Tree" came on, I was instantly transported back several years to my old house, where I lived when my sons were little boys. I got a flashback in my head of the four of us sitting on the old couch, a bowl of popcorn perched precariously in between my knees, a warm glow coming off the wood stove while the movie "Swiss Family Robinson" played on the television. This used to be one of the boys' favorite movies, so we watched it over and over again.
The one scene I remember is when the family has been stuck on the island for quite some time and the older boys have gone off to explore the other side of the place and come back on Christmas Eve with a girl in tow. The mother is kind of gloomy as it's Christmas Eve for heaven's sake and half her family is still missing. Then, suddenly, while she is singing " O Christmas Tree" and playing on the piano, the voices of the boys and the girl chime in. It's quite a touching moment, really, even for a slightly hokey movie like this one and a scene that has always stuck in my head.
So, now the the song and that movie are forever linked in my head, kind of like how certain smells can transport you backwards in time. I don't mind, really...in fact, I might just see if I can find that old VHS tape of the movie and watch it again sometime soon, just for old times sake.
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