Dorothy M. Palla

( Submitted photo / December 23, 2012 )

In 1931, when my late husband, Robert L. Palla, was in the first grade in Scranton, Pa., he made a little wooden elephant that has been hanging on every Christmas tree from his family as a child and then passed on down to our family, when we were married. Through the years he has lost part of his trunk, but he proudly takes the most visible spot on our Christmas tree each year, held together by a piece of cord and a thumb tack. He was painted gray and black. My son Bob Jr. reproduced copies of the little gray elephant so the rest of our children could share in their dad's creation. It will be hanging in the most prominent place on our Christmas tree until the next generation continues the tradition of the Little Gray Elephant. ¿ By Dorothy M. Palla, Hagerstown