Christmas Years Ago

I was sitting in a doctor's office recently and there was a Christmas tree there. Among its other pretty decorations were silvery foil 'icicles' resting on the branches. You don't see those 'icicles' much any more and it sure brought back memories.
I don't think Christmas tree lots existed when I was a youngster; even if they did... never in a million years would my parents have gone there to buy one. BUY a Christmas tree? Ridiculous! We would go out to the 'back pasture' where the cedar trees were plentiful, pick a good one and bring it home.

I can remember making strings of popcorn & (I think maybe) cranberries for the tree; we must have had some shiny balls to hang on the branches. I was 9 or 10 years old when electricity became a part of our household so likely we began having electric tree lights then. And the icicles... we always had the icicles.
 On the tree I saw recently the icicles seemed to be mostly tossed up & let to fall where they would.  On our tree, they were lovingly hung... each individual little strand of foil put precisely in place. And when the tree came down... each individual little strand of foil was gently draped onto a piece of cardboard... to be used again next year.  We did not waste.
I think of those icicles sometimes when I am about to toss away something perfectly good but no longer useful to me. You can only save so many glass jars...plastic containers...very sturdy cardboard boxes (in various sizes). I do recycle, but probably not enough.
I blame it on our 'throw away' world.  I wish corporations...and people.. would think more like my Mom. Use those plastic bags, aluminum foil, packing peanuts, pickle jars again and again. And most important of all... save those icicles for next year.