26-Year Old Norway Spruce
From R. T. Waldrop's Yard
By - Cal Carpenter
Feature Editor
“Mother,” said the little girl
spruce tree,
When October skies were blue,
"Why can’t I have a new outfit
Like other little trees do?"
Mother Spruce Tree replied to
her daughter,
"Wait until snow fills the air.
You will still have your pretty
green garments
While the others have nothing
to wear.”
—Author Unknown
* * * *
Snow hasn’t filled the air in the mountains
of Western North Carolina; nor yet in the east
ern Piedmont nor in the Coastal Plains. But a
local Norway Spruce tree — one that could
hardly be called little — with a height of 35
feet and a limb-spread of 19 feet—is about to
have a new outfit.
And it’s an outfit that will far exceed its
"pretty green garment.” It will out-glitter
even the Christmas tree in the Hans Christian
Andersen story, or the little pine tree with the
gold leaves in the fairy tale in our old second
grade readers.
This tree will be sDrayed with more than
100 gallons of white paint. It will be strung
with 750 multicolor lights and decorated with
300 six-inch gold balls. It will be garlanded with
1,000 feet of gold tassel.
It will stand in the main court of a 40,000
square foot, enclosed mall where an estimated
30,000 people a day will come to be inspired
by its beauty—nearly a million people during
the holiday period from the day after Thanks
giving until Christmas Eve. It w»ll be the
“Magic Christmas Tree” of the Tarrytown
Center — the star of the Tar*-ytown Christ
mas Music Festival at Rocky Mount.
STAR OF THE SHOW
By a modern electronic technique that
neither Hans Christian Andersen nor even the
fairies of the old fairv tales ever dreamed of,
the multicolored lights on the tree will vary their
colors with the singing voices of choral groups—
three or four groups each evening. Low notes
will trend the lights toward one color, higher
notes another; still higher, another. The effect
will be an aurora—a vision of beauty against
the white-gold background of the tree.
People will come from many towns and
other states to see the tree, shop in the modern
Tarrytown Center, meet friends and be in'
spired by the music. Handicapped people will
come, as they’ve come since the festival began
in 1965, to see and hear. The mall is easily
accessible to wheelchairs and stretchers; and
the programs are open to all at no charge.
Tve star of the show, the center of atten
tion and the cynosure of all eyes, will be the
tree—a tree from TVansyIvani'’ County—a tree
from the lawn cf Mr. and Mrs. Raleigh T.
Waldrop of the Cher-yfield community a few
miles west of Brevard.
BEGINNING OF TRADITION
How comes a Transylvania Norway
Spruce to go to Rocky Mo-nt to be the star of
a Christmas Music Festival? It’s something of
a story in itself.
The idea of the “Magic Christmas Tree”
began with a wish, according to George W.
Braswell, General Manager of the Tarrytown
Center and the man who has searched the West
ern Carolina mountains these past several weeks
for a 30-foot Christmas Tree.
“It was our wish to bring real meaning
into the celebration of Christmas,” he says.
"We first asked the question: “What arethe
true elements of a Christmas celebration?
Our answer quickly was: a Christmas Tree,
music and the gathering of friends.
These thoughts evolved into "The Magic
Christmas Tree” with choral groups singing, and
on November 25, 1965, a huge 32-foot Douglas
Pir imported from Pennsylvania was lighted in
the Mall. During that first season, more than
600,000 friends came to enjoy the tree. /
"With the approach of the Christmas
of 1966, we received hundreds of in
about the Magic Christmas Tree. It
^4^ to espa
into a full Christmas Festival with
That was the beginning of a tradition.
y&yB : . ” * * Ml
Now, every year, a tree is brought in. This year it
is the 26-year old Norway Spruce from the
Waldrop’s lawn.
“MAY IT BRING HAPPINESS”
Say the Waldrops: “The tree was bought
from the Hayes Nursery in Asheville, 26 years
ago. It was first used as an indoor Christmas
tree the year our oldest daughter, Gayle, was
born. We set it out in the yard after Christ
mas and decorated it each year for several
years, until it became too big.
“Many fond memories are connected with
the tree—our daughter’s first Christmas tree,”
say the Waldrops. “But it had to be removed
because it had outgrown the yard. We hope it
may bring as much happiness to those who see
it in Tarrytown as it has to us.”
HEIGHT OP BEAUTY
The tree was taken down last week and
made the three-day and three-night trip to
Rocky Mount. It weighed about two tons, it
was hauled on a 45-foot trailer and special
permission for the bulky load had to be ob
tained from the State Highway Commission.
It could not be moved on Interstate Highways,
so a carefully planned, commercial route had
to be followed.
How did Mr. Braswell find the tree?
“I’d been looking along the Blue Ridge
Parkway near Sylva,” he says. “We could
have found a tree there, but there would be
a lot of trouble in getting it out—no commer
cial vehicles are allowed on the parkway.
“I have friends in Transylvania who’d told
me there were beautiful trees here. I was driv
ing toward Brevard on U. S. 64 when I passed
the Waldrops’ house and saw their tree. I
stopped and talked to them, and they told me
they would let the tree go.
“The tree’s really at its peak,” say* Mr.
Braswell. It’s at the height of its beauty.”
A LESSON?
So the Waldrops’ tree went to Tarr.vtown.
It will be trimmed and painted ("to hold its
moisture foit the five weeks or so it will be uesd)
and decorated. It will be lighted the evening of
the day after Thanksgiving with Second District,
U. S. Congressman, L. H. Fountain, officiating.
It will have a new and glittering outfit;
it will be clothed in color and lights and tinsel
while “the other (trees) have nothing to
wear.”
It will be the star of the show for five
weeks. Then it will probably be made into fire
wood.
There must be a lesson in that, but we’ll
not try to cite it. Let each reader find bis
own.
1961 Rosman Senior Class To
Have Reunion On November 26
The 1061 senior class of Ros
man High school will hold a 10
year class reunion on Friday
evening, November 26, begin
ning at 6:30 p.m.
lit will be conducted at the
Pisgah Fish Camp, where din
ner will be served to order. Fol
lowing dinner, games and other
festivities will begin.
Please call 885-2578 or write
P. O. Box 224, Pisgah Forest,
for other arrangements.
All members and their wives
or husbands are expected to at
tend if possible.
Brevard P-TA
Meets Monday
The Brevard Elementary
P-TA will moot Monday, Novem
ber 28th, beginning at 7:30
o’clock in the evening.
The program will be pre
sented by some children in a
musical under the direction of
Mrs. Scott
Also, the net profit of the
Fall Festival will be discussed
wuwtOtfTY
, *tva •
The Magic Christmas Tree From Transylvania
Pearson Rites
Held Tuesday
Sherman Pearson, age 78, of
Valdese, died late last Tuesday
evening at his home. He was a
resident of Cedar Mountain be
fore moving to Valdese.
Survivors include the wife,
Mrs. Ida Barton Pearson; three
daughters, Mrs. Faye Cisson of
Marietta, S. C„ Mrs. Ruby Ship
man of Atlanta, Georgia, and
Mrs. Cora Butler of Camden,
New Jersey; three sons, Clar
ence, of Penrose, John, of Mari
etta, S. C„ and Harley Pearson
of Valdese: four sisters, Mrs.
Cora Rogers of Black Moun
tain, Mrs. Walter Nicholson of
Penrose, Mrs. Gayla Merrell of
Penrose, and Mrs. Bessie Cox
of Washington; 22 grandchil
dren; and 22 great-grandchil
dren.
Funeral services were held
last Thursday in North Laurel
Baptist Church in Valdese.
Graveside services were held
Thursday in Cathey’s Creek
Cemetery, Brevard. The Rev
erends Bill Williams and Hairl
Towery officiated.
FOR SALE
FOR SALK—I raja Oita
Waylite Paper . (800
sheets) ideal for second
copies and Air Mail Let*
ters. Special: $1.00. The
Transylvania Times.
When you think of prescrip
tions. think of VARNER’S, adv
NOTICE
To All Transylvania
Tax Payers!
★
PAY YOUR TOWN AND
COUNTY TAXES ,NOW t ;
In order to avoid a 2% penalty
that will go into effect Jan. 1, 1972.
The 1971 N. C. General Assembly has re
written and modernized the property tax law
of this state known as the Machinery Act. The
revision went into effect on July 1, 1971.
This means that your current real and per
sonal property taxes arc due and payable NOW,
and that you will be assessed a 2% penalty if
you wait until after the first of the year to pay.
SAVE THAT 2% BY PAYING NOW!
VERNON FULLBRIGHT
TRANSYLVANIA COUNTY TAX COLLECTOR
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