SoapZone Community Message Board

good reason at all. For some reason, I don't have very good luck finding anything I need, or even want, at TJ Maxx but I was already in this particular plaza picking up a few things at the Dollar Tree next door, so I nipped in...and came out with a couple bags of things, mostly Christmas gifts. One of the things I got was a tiny (4") silver tinsel Christmas tree, complete with the rotating colored light. We have a treasured family tale...way back when the silver trees with the rotating colored wheel were becoming a thing ( ), my great-great uncle (Dad's grandma's brother) made his own version. Except the tree rotated, not the color wheel...anyways, this particular uncle was known for his inventions (he once invented a machine that made metal clothes hangers), so he decided to put together some kind of motor to turn the tree. The tree, for some reason, was at my grandparents' house...apparently the uncle misjudged the motor speed so when he first turned it on, the tree started spinning madly and ornaments were flung off. Dad had some of the neighborhood kids over to see the tree; everything thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen. The tree actually acquired the nickname "The Flying Dutchman", and while eventually the motor speed was slowed down to something appropriately sedate, the kids would still beg to have the tree spin at top velocity.

And that's why I couldn't resist a miniaturized version of The Flying Dutchman.