The Strawberry Top

True story - first published 2001

No matter how much we love the Winter Holidays with all the trimmings, there is the validity of Christmas 'stocking stuffers'  -
they are a refreshing escape from the "too-much-ness" of things.  

Stocking stuffers and similar "little-gift" observances renew the awareness that the true holiday spirit is a small and shining moment that connects people in light !   
A funny little thing can be like that! 

Stocking Stuffers shopping 1975, I purchased a little wooden strawberry-shaped top.
 Three inches high, in the shape of a strawberry, a simple green spinning stick protruding like a stem, it was painted bright red-pink, with green strawberry seeds dotted all over it.  

I love classics and tradition at the holidays and I hoped that the top would charm my family as it did me!

The Strawberry Top cost all of seventy-five cents as part of a last-minute holiday closeout, at a friend's decorator shop Winter Holiday sale, and found its place atop one of our Christmas Stockings!

Our nice life was full of the joys of the Season,and with lots of brightly wrapped gifts under the tree, for our "very-good-all-year-long" son and daughter (7 and 5 at the time).  

And on Christmas morning, after the thrill of the opening of gifts and glee and hugs all around, snacks and. church , our children were fascinated by the mirthful little top!  
They loved their gifts, but the Strawberry top was the surprise, a charmer that won center stage for their attention! We had to be firm about putting it away with the other Christmas things. But a tradition had been born!

Each Christmas, ever after, the top was among the first of the trimmings to be brought out from storage and the ceremony with Father,children and Mother gathered and gleeful at the thought of spinning that tiny Strawberry Top, signaling the start of holiday celebrations - each year more a family tradition !  

A wonderful top! 
An amazing top! 
A remarkable spinning strawberry top! 

When our teething Brittany Spaniel pup, Apples, put a toothmark in it, we held our breath, at top-spinning time: would it still spin? A wooden top depends on a delicate balance.   But it spun as merrily as ever!  And with Apples' toothmark in it, we loved it all the more !  The marvelous top would spin and spin, and spin and spin - and spin  for more than a full minute - and longer, sometimes !   My sci-tech husband was impressed with its aerodynamics!  Each time, expressing a strong and merry life at the Winter Holidays!   Its dynamic a family-as-one symbol...it's heart shape - OUR hearts as one.

More years passed and never without our "Strawberry Top Moment", but then: Our children were in their early teens, the summer their Father died suddenly, and soon, that first Christmas following without him - except for his spirit, with us, always !   Gramma joined the children and I for a trip away at Thanksgiving - it was too soon and too intense to make our at-home dinner without our master turkey carver!     But the draw of our own home and its charms and devotion to  the traditions and observances moved us to give Christmas a chance.  We began bringing out the boxes of things and planning the days ahead.

The Strawberry top achieved a mighty stature that year - the children, so solemn , at my side ... no jumping and giggling but the three of is hushed for their beloved Father, who was not there.  

Then came the quick and light and firm twirl to the now slightly-worn wooden stem, and off it went !    

IMPERTUBABLY ,

merrily,

steadily,

kind of dramatically sharing its magic with us!

 "I guess we're ok", I said, my words reflected in our children's faces - as that top spun and spun on the counter - downright plucky!  

"The Strawberry Top still spins ! " , our triumphant cheer !

And "Sure enough",  the challenge of painful loss only meant, that the  delight returned with a power!

With worth! Triumph!

Even after the children grew up and "flew up" to fine life on their own, the Strawberry Top remained a focus for us at holiday visits !  

By then it had become a true barometer, of a sort... life changes, but love is eternal !   

Our grownup daughter made an emerald green velvet pouch for the strawberry top, with bright red velvet lining, and tiny clear crystal beads, like snowflakes, on the outside, and a satin cord drawstring to close the pouch and protect it snugly.  Now, no matter where we did Christmas,  our top could come along, and make the key moment with "we-three" together and loving one another for another wonderful year!   A true bit of magic:  when a strawberry top finds your family circle, it is special.

And then, around 2008 - Gone!  

The top disappeared, somewhere along the path of holiday travels.  

We searched  "high and low", and over and over, whenever it seemed right.  

But no Strawberry Top!  It was gone.  I told the children, and sadly we marked that it had been...

A wonderful top! 
An amazing top! 
A remarkable spinning strawberry top! 

Finally, I prayed and the answer came:  "As special as we thought it,

maybe someone needed the Strawberry Top more than we did!  

And the angels who brought the little wooden top to us, in the first place, may have spirited it out to them!  

Peace and closure and we go on - and Christmas was still a delight.

But the little miracle was not ready to give up.  

In 2012,  preparing for the upcoming holidays, I remembered our top and  missed it, and glumly popped "strawberry top" in the search box at the top of my computer's  browser  - and life changed!

Strawberry tops !    

Plural !  

Dozens of them!  

JUST like ours!  

But more - orange tops, pear tops, apple tops, carrot tops and dancing all over the page before me in a color show - from  a company called "Londji" in Catalonia-Spain - they make classic wooden toys - and I tried to buy one of the strawberry tops - but at the time, they did not ship to the United States.    

Stunned and happy, but not available for purchase at the site, I could not let go, so close to home and  I emailed them with my story , in happy tears, asking the price for one strawberry top.

 They liked the story so much they published it with their things and sent me one strawberry top, refusing to take payment for it!

The day it arrived at the post office the snow was deep and still falling, but

I geared-up

and off I went - or should I say,  I flew ?  

And then friends from the neighborhood spotted me struggling

Theygave me a lift.

"Why so elated? It's just snowing.... "  they they laughed, and he gave me a leg up into the car, a sturdy four-wheel-drive.

I told them the story and they joined my merry mood.  

Soon we were at the Post Office and the tiny box was in hand and opened in the car to delight  another threesome in the snow - thirty years later!  

Thrilled and now back home, I made tea and just gazed at my restored Strawberry top!  

YES!

It was the right size shape and style in every way!  NO hurry to test it: clearly, it would not fail.  

I was glad I was alone - and sent a prayer of a sort that its tiny spirit always be graced to make and share the "Mirth on Earth" that was its destiny, and gave it a spin ... 

A wonderful top! 
An amazing top! 
A remarkable spinning strawberry top! 

Jubilation as I shared the news with our children - like the Angels at the Birth of the tiny Infant who would light the world !  

And today it is already basking in the glow - this year's spint done and done and inviting more whenever we like.  Yes!  The Strawberry Top still spins almost 50 years later!

May the strawberry top send some of its magic to you yours - and may your holidays merrily spin, and spin, also, and always.... happy holiday! ..............elle

update:  Tops are Pop again ... https://foreverspin.com/cart

And  "Londji" in Catalonia-Spain  for the wooden colorful traditional tops that spin for ages !

Christmas Wedding

After the ceremoney at St.Anthony Fairfield CT - at Frederick's Reception also in Fairfield, CT 12-17-66

December 17th 1966 - years of longing, and work and learning and more work and finding the moment of love forever born and winning through to this day!

At least for our children, long ago grown and living distantly with fine work and loves of their own I will share this "part one" of THE story of how we met and married.  It was all so grand to us, and a gift of empowering love is their birthright!  

But that's another story. More will come.

Our Christmas wedding turned out to be the Army's idea, and a lovely one!  We were a 'love at first sight" pair - the happy result of long dreams and preparation and long prayed-for. We'd dated for nearly two years and we found it easy to talk about everything:  there were no impediments to a bright future together.  As often happens, once engaged,  the planned date of 1969 , worked perfectly at first - his end of service sync-ed with  my graduation from college - yes!    But "Plan A" had to be dropped due to illness and financial setbacks to some of the top players in our lives - not a worry! The wedding date was accelerated to December 17th, 1966 at Christmas leave.  Even better! This meant we could be together as Commissioned Officer and Officer's wife and I could help Red Cross.  Of course, we were in a time of changes for us - some of which were not of our making and not of our desiring. But overall, such things were not a major obstacle. We were fine and families and legalities were pleased with us -  happy.

I look back and think, "Gosh, we were brave!"   We all had fine schools and fine studies and yet we were young, untried, new at adult life in any form, and that day, soon all off to war, and war is death!     I remember the intense joy at our love and anguish for his survival in VietNam - competing for my emotions, love won that day.

We grew up on John Wayne patriotism and were sickened and undermined by the unpopularity of this war.  But, just for now, even death had only limited powers in the face of our love!  We knew we'd come "Shining through" and we did.  War presented  opportunities to serve one another AND our country and community and family, too.

 In addition to the war to threaten this time of love's commitments, Mother and Dad were dealing with health and money issues , but they were the best, and so, cooking up a wedding helped everything !  

This wedding  project development was doing profoundly well at doing good in all ways.

In Fairfield, all  brides were in heaven !   If you grew up there, for a golden time you owned the town!   A blessed girlhood was paying off with a very happy start into adulthood!  Wedding social and fashion and mores abounded! l Rules - there were rules and one could experience lots of desireable extras if one bothered to seek and follow them.

 Young marriage is not really recommended, but we were were fine for it and it worked and lasted happily and successfully.  There was plenty of excitement to whittle the few pounds off for a very classy look for the pictures!   Happy cheat!   Money, reception, gifts, engraved invitations, flowers, and the people we loved!    Wardrobe?   My beloved "Nanna" a friend of the family was a designer and we had serious fun with it and the shop keepers in the NYC garment district treated us like visiting royalty one afternoon, shopping for the wedding gown fabrics.

We made a nice picture in our wedding things - My double-brocaded satin and faux white mink Christmas wedding gown and his  elegant  USACE Officers Uniform: oh yes!  It was going to be nice.

The day:   Everyone had  gone on to the church but the bride hung back for the classic "moment" on the threshold of her Father's house and stepping out over it to adulthood and  new life,  with a prayer for continued love for God and Man - especially one man!  Her Man!  The noise of war tried to crowd out the sweetness of the day and I recall ,saying silently to the heavens, " OHHHH NO YOU DON"T - not this day!  This day is not yours - it is our day."    

Snapped out of my reverie by a horn blast from my "carriage" ,  they promised to be going on to the church without me, if I did not come along as Dad did, to escort to me to Godfather Uncle Bill's long white car,   laughing that I'd miss my own wedding!   "Here comes the Bride!" , they called, laughing merrily,  then turned solemn,  as we approached the Church. The lovely vigil snowfall I'd hoped for had created the pretty scene and cleared,  and now it was the cool and crisp but sunny day!  Everything with the sparkling white coverlet and me afraid to own up to my own delight in it.

As we entered, it was clear that the arrangements  were being carried out really well: work was well done: all was ready and lovely, especially the hearts!  There for me was the church I helped fundraise for, festooned with flowers and ribbons all along my path;  and the people filled the pews.  There was my bridal party on ahead of me: maid of honor/cousin Betty; a sister of the groom, Mary; a best friend, my sister  junior bridesmaid in her first gown, Lorraine,  and  my boss' six-year-old,  our flower girl little Sandy.  
Waiting at the altar the groomsmen were a handome show,  in the classic line of duty: groom's brother the Best man, John Francis, in Naval Uniform, who almost took over the wedding when his Navy ship was delayed in docking and he had to make a wild dash racing down the aisle,to take his place on time;  next, in Morning coat, my brother, Rick, on his way to a green beret then red;  then Denny, a fellow officer from the groom's OCS ;  and for my kid sister, my groom's kid brother Terry !  Some guys!  I can be proud of them all to this day, thank goodness!

 My Father, almost ashen with solemnity, escorted me down the aisle and passed my hand to my soulmate's keeping, so handsome in his newly-commissioned USACE officer's uniform - lucky me  !  

Our priest at the service was a personal friend to my father-in-law, who'd studied for the priesthood himself, early on, then turned to accounting and law and many babies.  The vows:  It was time.  And we were ready and we were fine.  The event itself seemed to go too quickly, after all that preparation!

 But with rings and a kiss and a blessing and a song, and a full church giving a cheer, we were one! 

The Reception at THE place for it that year was dizzy, with two hundred in attendance,  but went very well, and soon we were at the Bridal Suite at the Hotel Americana in New York for the wedding night, and plane to Bermuda  in the morning!   We were just so happy to be "US" , we  enjoyed the beauties of the "eye- lahnd" and our time alone so lovely!   And when the Blizzard of '66 gave us an entire extra week at the Airline's expense - oh yes -  grand fun to be stranded on an island with one's one true love! What better start  - thank you, saints and angels!

Even a blizzard will clear  after a week, but homecoming would now be on New Years Eve and more fun, and then off to Fort Knox a few days later.  But that's another story.  

My wish for my newlywed children ?  Quote from a top pop film at the time:  "Gidget" - her Grandmother in the movie points to the family motto:  "Don't say that Love has been a disappointment to you ~  Don't you be a disappointment to Love ! " 

...easy, once you get the idea  

e.

How the Robin Got His Red Breast

Legend - fable - fiction - 2006 - from "A Christmas Stocking" by Louise Betts Egan


On that first Christmas, it is said, the night was wrapped in a bitter chill.  The  Newborn Baby sleeping, Mary resting, but the small fire in the stable was nearly out, Joseph had gone for food and the new Mother Mary worried that her baby would be cold.  She turned to the animals about her and asked them for help. 

"Could you blow on the embers," she asked the ox, "so the fire might continue to keep my son warm?" 

But the ox lay sound asleep on the stable floor and did not hear her.  Next, Mary asked the donkey, horse and the sheep to breathe life back into the fire, but the sleeping animals did not hear Mary.  She wondered what to do. 

Suddenly, Mary heard a fluttering of little wings. Looking up, she saw a plain, little brown robin fly into the stall.  This robin had heard Mary calling to the animals and had come to help her himself.  He went over to the dying fire and flapped his wings hard. 

His wings were like little bellows, huffing and puffing air onto the embers, until they glowed bright red again.   He continued to fan the fire, singing all the while, until the ashes began to kindle.   Next, with his beak, the robin picked up some fresh, dry sticks and tossed them into the fire.   As he did, a flame suddenly burst forth and burned the little bird's breast a bright red.   But the robin simply continued to fan the fire until it crackled brightly and warmed the entire stable.

The Baby Jesus slept happily.

Mary thanked the robin for all he had done.   She looked tenderly at his red breast, burned by the flame, and said  "From now on, let your red breast be a blessed reminder of your noble deed." 

And to this day, the robin's red breast covers his humble heart.