My Christmas Lamp Post

Growing up, children may have friends that are pets or stuffed animals but my favorite non-breathing friend was a lamp post located outside my bedroom window.
Let me explain. I grew up in a family where there was a lot of fighting and tears. When I was put to bed at night, there was a lamp post not far from my bedroom window on my neighbor’s property.
It could be described as the standard square colonial lantern style. What I liked about it was the lamp post filled my room with a light, sort of like the moon.
The lamp post was on when I went to bed and stayed on until dawn. If I woke up in the night, there was the lamp post on duty watching over me. It seemed like I had my own lighthouse.
No matter how bad things got around the house, the lamp post was always there lighting my room. I never remember a night when the light was out except if the power lines were out.
My neighbors decorated the lamp post at Christmas time putting a top hat on the top and holly garlands or ribbons around the base. As a little girl, it looked jolly to me. At Easter, they put a basket of bunnies on top. It may also have been decorated for the Fourth of July and St. Paddy’s Day.
A few years ago I was driving through the neighborhood and my neighbors were digging up the lamp post to put in a new one. The old lamp post had faded paint and the wiring was old.
I asked the neighbors if I could have my friend the lamp post. They said yes and I brought him home.
He now lives indoors in a corner of the living room. My husband made a tripod to hold it up and we gave it a coat of paint. The wires were fine, we didn’t want to change the heart and soul of it.
So, at Christmas, we have a tree but also the lamp post all decorated for Christmas spending his older years inside out of the rain, cold and hear, and still providing light all the time.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lamp Post.
Porzuki writes from Villas.