Each year, when I unpack the ornaments, I’m always glad to see this one, because it makes me remember the friend who gave it me. It’s not really an ornament, but the cut off cover of a Christmas card with a hole punched in the corner for a string to hang it. “I couldn’t find an ornament,” Charles explained when he gave it to me at the New York penguin tree party. I knew it was from a Christmas card right away, because I send penguin cards every year and this was the card I sent one year. I was, and still am, impressed that he went to so much trouble to bring something to hang on the tree, even though I never even hinted that everyone should. Charles and I played a lot of bridge over the years. He introduced me to the competitive world of duplicate bridge, where I once earned a miniscule fraction of an international master point with him. Charles also took me on my first trip to Marie’s Crisis, a piano bar on Grove Street in New York City, where you can learn a thing or too about Broadway show tunes. It can be an intimidating place the first time ("how do they know all the words?"), but not so bad with a friend.
Paper Christmas card cover, gift from Charles MeEwen
Acquired: 1980s
Number: 0063
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