Literature
Taylor’s Christmas Tale
Christmas, 2005
Children are legendary in their inability to keep secrets. This is a story about children and secrets. My sister, Martha Gene, and her husband, Wally, may be some of the best grand parents the world has ever known. Their home serves as a second home to a large number of grandchildren and they easily have as many or more touching stories about grandchildren than I. This is a story about Taylor, their five year old granddaughter and daughter of Angela, that took place about a month before Christmas in 2005. Martha Gene and Wally, her husband, live in a huge friendly house that sits on the West side of Horse Mountain in Shelbyville. The house is surrounded by many animal features and appliances like bird feeders and baths that are truly functional. A wide variety of animals dine regularly on their premises, including wild deer, turkeys, squirrels, frogs, and fish (They have a lake.).
One cold Fall evening as a group of family sat around the fireplace, a program on public TV described things that animal lovers could do for their feathery friends in the winter. One of these was to install a heater in their birdbaths so that water would always be available for birds to drink and bathe in. Martha Gene and Wally, very enthusiastically commented on what a great idea this was, and suggested that they would like to install such devices in their birdbaths. This did not fall on deaf ears, since Angela had been wondering what she could get them for Christmas.
Fast forwarding a few weeks to the end of November finds Martha Gene and Taylor walking together in the garden. Taylor took her by the hand and said to her, "Granny, I know a secret about what someone is getting for Christmas." And she nodded her head towards the bird bath and smiled.
Martha Gene, realizing what she was disclosing, quickly cautioned her, "But don’t tell anyone what they are getting for Christmas. To this Taylor quickly responded, "It’s okay, the bird bath heater is for someone else."
When Wally eventually heard the story, it reminded him of his own experience as a child. When he was about four his mother, Catherine Cartwright, had taken him with her Christmas shopping. She had purchased Wally’s father, who was quite a musician, a new guitar. All the way home, she coached Wally on the importance of keeping the secret until Christmas. Even as they pulled in the driveway of their home she repeated, "Wally, do not tell Daddy about the guitar."
As soon as the car came to a halt, Wally burst from the car and ran to his father. As soon as he saw his father, he shouted out, "Mama got you a flat tar for Christmas!"