Selling Christmas Trees

 

December 15, 2022



One year my husband and I decided to sell Christmas trees in Connecticut with a friend, Rick. We bought an old truck with a tool body on it. After buying two wheels with tires from two different junk yards, we traveled to Pennsylvania to buy 100 trees. We bought another wheel with better tread and took off the tool body, replacing it with a plywood flat bed. When we returned to Connecticut with the trees, we proudly put up a “trees for sale” sign and put six trees in the sale spot we had picked under a three-way bridge. The next morning we found the trees had been stolen. Getting more plywood we made a camper type body on the truck so we could sleep with our trees.

Tree sales were brisk and a few weeks before Christmas we decided to buy more trees. Rick staying in Connecticut sleeping in an old Cadillac, while my husband and I took the truck back to Pennsylvania over the weekend for another load of trees. Of course just the two of us heading out would be much too simple for my life.

One of our friends, Doc, had a TR3 Triumph sports car with a blown motor. We just happened to have a motor from a Triumph Herald Sudan that was the same size as the TR3 we decided to sell him. Our other friend, Sue, wanted to spend the weekend with us so she and Doc followed us home in her Austin Healey Sprite sports car while we towed the TR3 with a tow bar on the truck.

All went well over the weekend. We took the plywood camper apart and piled the trees on the flatbed. We topped the trees with a mattress we had been using as a bed and the sides and the roof and sides from the camper. It was all lashed down with a big rope. It was now time to head back to Connecticut.

We left the driveway with my husband and me in the truck. Sue and Doc followed in her Austin. We stopped at the stop sign at the end of the road. My husband let the truck roll back as he started to pull out and crash! The bumper took out the headlights on the Austin. Oops!

It took all of Sunday but we were lucky enough to have two replacement headlights at the farm. We were then able to be back on our way in short order.

We got off the thru-way at the first exit to get gasoline with my husband still driving and Sue following behind. As we went back up the entrance ramp with full gasoline tanks, there was a white poodle standing in the middle of the ramp.

“Watch out for the poodle!” I yelled.

“It’s not a poodle. It’s a turkey!” he yelled back at me while braking hard!

Turns out it was a turkey that must have escaped from a shipping crate. My husband and Doc jumped out, caught the turkey, killed it and put it in a plastic bag under the mattress to be processed into dinner when we returned to Connecticut. Off we went again.

As it was starting to get dark, we decided to stop at our usual diner for supper before crossing into New York. After eating, we again took our places to continue on. Sue zoomed around the truck and Doc yelled out the window, “You have a flat tire!” As Sue pulled in front of us, we noticed she had no taillights. Of course, the spare tire was in Connecticut.

A call was made to home in Pennsylvania and my brother came up with a jack to take us to Connecticut so we could pick up the spare tire. Doc, fearing he would miss his Monday classes, hitched a ride to Connecticut with a tractor trailer driver.

The rest of the trip to Connecticut with my brother was uneventful. My husband stayed in the Cadillac and Rick came back with Sue and me to change the truck tire. By the time we were done, it was daylight so Sue could continue without taillights.

The day before Christmas we had sold almost all the trees. Putting up a “free tree” sign, we headed back to the apartment to divy up the profits. We had eaten well from the turkey; we paid all the bills; we owned an old pickup with a makeshift camper on it; and we each put about $50 in our pockets.

 

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