White or Colored

In my lifetime, the segregation of whites and blacks still existed, especially in the South. But, this is not a story about race. It's a story about Christmas lights.

My first Christmas with the husband resulted in a huge debate. He owned colored lights. I am a white lights person. We struggled and negotiated. In one of the few instances in our life together, I prevailed. We've only used white lights since that first year. I got rid of the colored ones so he wouldn't be tempted.

I'm reminded of this for two reasons:

I walk by our tree (Merry Impersonal Christmas) and I'm remembering every holiday, especially that first one where we mixed our stuff.
We took the oldies to dinner a few weeks ago and Hangdog said very loudly, "Would you ask that colored man to bring me some coffee?" (I guess race does come into play.)

Then I got to watch the husband have a freak-out moment.