Geneabloggers is
once again hosting the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories encouraging family
historians to write about their holiday traditions.
In December of 2011, my most inspired outdoor decoration
was the result of months of neglect on the part of my city, Chesapeake,
Virginia.
Periodically the road in front of my house begins to cave
in. A phone call to the City is all it
takes to get someone running with a pail of asphalt to patch her up. The patch never lasts long. The summer of 2011 the road gave way
again. This time the City decided to get
serious. They delivered a traffic drum.
Surely that meant help was on the way.
September.
October. November. Months passed and cars continued to swerve
around the drum.
In December, I added a bow. Heck – the drum seemingly had become a
permanent fixture in the neighborhood.
On Christmas Eve, there was nothing to do but this:
The neighbors loved it. They even wondered what we could do next.
In February I came home from the Dollar Store with a bag
full of decorations for Valentines Day, St. Patricks Day, and Mardi Gras. But the drum was gone, and in its place was a NEW patch.
In June, our road was put on life support with a prognosis for a speedy recovery.
In June, our road was put on life support with a prognosis for a speedy recovery.
No more Christmas traffic drum. We'll have to get in touch with our inner Griswold some other way.
©
2014, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
I wish I lived in your neighborhood! This post makes me smile. :)
ReplyDeleteHave a happy day!
Well, come on -- there's a house across the street for sale.
DeleteThat looks fantastic, what a great idea. Hope the 'fix' of your road is now permanent.
ReplyDeleteOh Wendy! This is just awesome! I was literally laughing out loud. It's so good, it's a no-brainer that this will be in my Fab Finds post this week. AND I've already shared it on my genealogy blog Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the laugh!
Glad you got a chuckle. Everyone is disappointed that we don't have traffic drum this year.
DeleteEspecially with your theme this year!
DeleteToo funny! We have a little fir tree on the street outside my office building and every December a mystery person decorates it for the holidays. As of yesterday, it was bare :-(
ReplyDeleteThere is a tree in the median along the interstate that gets decorated each year. No one ever seems to be able to catch the "tree fairy" in the act.
DeleteWith your "drum decorating" history Wendy, could the "tree fairy" be you? Just sayin' :)
DeleteIf I had ever tried to bring joy to the motorists of I-64, I would certainly have been caught red and green handed, then arrested for vandalism.
Delete