Saturday, November 24, 2012

Sparkly Season


This evening was the fiftieth anniversary of the lighting 
of the "World's Tallest Christmas Tree."
Each year, lights are strung from the Indianapolis
War Memorial on the Circle, the surrounding trees are
wrapped in lights and candy canes and toy soldiers
are stationed all around. This is done the day after Thanksgiving,
which marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping
season, when all the most sparkly displays are
shown in the stores, the laciest camisoles, the most
satiny of bows - not to mention the most outlandish
gimcrackery, and gimmicky tools for the men. 


The Indianapolis Power & Light Company debuted
window displays, re-creating some of Norman Rockwell's
most famous Christmas illustrations.
The one above caught my eye because the figure
closely resembles my brother, Doug, who's
going to be pretty astonished to see himself depicted
astride a rocking horse. The second one shows a young
boy, fallen asleep while "Miracle on 34th Street"
plays on the family television.


2 comments:

dive said...

Happy Anniversary to your awesome sparkly, tree, Speedway.
I love those window displays. Much as people over on this side of the pond deride him for being cheesy and reactionary I've always had a soft spot for Rockwell.

You do realise you're going to have to buy Doug a rocking horse for Christmas.

Speedway said...

Thanks, Dive. I fixed it, the most *sparkly* of seasons thing.

Doug is about 6-foot-3, has much the same build, the same mustache and hairline of the character astride his kid's horse. It was a bit startling to see it.