Christmas 1968

 

 

Way back.  Before any of our children.  A week or so before Christmas, we marveled at Milan and Olga’s Christmas Tree.  I worked with Milan at Gates Rubber Company in Denver.  Dr. Milan Brokl.  He was an accomplished PhD chemist who knew everything about chemistry.  I was an assistant chemist with an associate’s degree and knew next to nothing compared to him.  He and Olga had a great backstory.  Milan was a chemistry instructor in Czechoslovakia and Olga was one of his students.  Czechoslovakia was part of the Soviet Union then, and any foreign trips were very tightly controlled.  Milan got a speaking engagement in East Germany and took his teaching assistant, Olga with him.  Together they escaped by swimming across a river one night, making their way to West Germany.  There it was safe for them to get married and continue on their way.  They never would have been allowed to travel outside the country as a married couple.  Such a mild-mannered man, none would ever suspect him of such subterfuge.  From West Germany they made it to the United States as defectors.  They could each speak some English, but the accent was so heavy it was difficult for some to follow.  I seemed to understand Milan better than others, so he used me sometimes to help him communicate.  We ended up friends.

 

So, that evening before Christmas, Judy and I were at Milan and Olga’s house marveling at the old-world candle holders and live candles on their tree.  The aroma was exquisite with all those little candles heating up the needles to release their fragrance.  At our house, a different night, they were impressed with our modern electric lights on our tree.

 

Next Christmas, guess what.  We had special old-world holders with lighted candles on our tree.

 

At Milan and Olga’s, they were so proud of their strings of electric lights.

 

Yes, we actually put lit candle flames on our Christmas Tree, and it was awesome.  And no, happily, we didn’t light anything else on fire or destroy the apartment building.  We did go back to electric lights every year after.