Starry, Starry Night

Margaret & Dick Janes
Surprise 40th Anniversary Party
12-8-82

Dad Christmas 1976

Dad had a business appointment in a client's home one evening.  The client had just remodeled his home.  He showed Dad a room with sparkles on the ceiling.  This must have been the beginning of the "popcorn" ceilings.  Dad was fascinated by the glittery substance on the ceiling, and he said it looked like a star filled desert night.  He told me that someday he was going to have a ceiling like that.

Dad began buying a box of stars each time he went to the store--you know, the kind you put on a first grader's good spelling test.  Those were in the days when you had to lick the back of the stars.  He had a huge amount of stars before he told me his plan.  He said that when he got enough stars, he was going to "surprise" Mom and put them on the ceiling of their mobile home.  Dad was sick, and I knew that he wasn't going to live long enough to actually follow through with this, so I opted to keep my mouth shut about it.  Dad was a dreamer, and what was the harm in a little dream if it made him happy?

One day not long after Dad died, Mom told me about all the stars she had found among Dad's things.  She wondered what on earth he was planning to do with them.  I told her that I knew.  When I told her his plan to "surprise" her, she was furious with me!  "Why didn't you tell me?!  I can't believe you were actually going to let him DO that!"  Hey, Mom, it's not like he could actually follow through with it.  Man, oh man, was she mad at me--and doubly mad at Dad!

My sister, Cheri, was teaching Kindergarten at the time.  I don't know how many years she used those stars, but I'm quite certain that she never had to buy another star.

Apparently, starry nights are all in your perspective.  If you have a great imagination, anything can be a beautiful desert starry night.  Let me tell you, Dad did not lack for imagination.