Have You Seen Me?

My mom loves Christmas. So do I. I think this Christmas Tree Turner has a lot to do with it. Mom still remembers lying beneath a rotating tree as a child. She would position herself on the carpet, looking straight up, watching the lights pass over her face in slow, hypnotic circles. The ornaments would catch the glow and send little reflections dancing across the ceiling. She says it was the most peaceful feeling in the world.

Decades later, I had the exact same experience. The same machine. The same hum. The same gentle turn. I remember the weight of anticipation every December when my dad would bring the Turner out of the closet. It was heavy — serious cast metal, not some plastic novelty, it can hold a full 8-ft tree! — and it took two people to carry it. We'd center the tree on the platform, plug everything in, and watch it come to life.

The Turner did more than spin. It had:

• A rotating platform strong enough to hold a full-size decorated tree
• Integrated electrical outlets that powered the tree lights while spinning
• A mechanical music box that played Christmas carols
• A wired remote control to adjust rotation speed, lights, and music independently

Growing up, I always heard that my grandfather "invented" this thing. It was actually a pretty big part of my grade school personality. My grandpa invented this thing. I told the other kids. I wanted to be an inventor. I built things around the house (thanks for putting up with me, mom and dad!) to varying degrees of success. My older brother even loves this thing.

Over time, the story grew vague but persistent: he was involved somehow, maybe in the design, maybe in the manufacturing. Milwaukee. The 1950s. A small operation. That was the legend.

And while the legend may have faded or changed over time, our love for this thing has never been shinier. That's where you come in. We are hitting a dead-end doing the research on the original Christmas Tree Turner, and know someone out there can help. We're looking for librarians, historians, museum and archive maintainers, hobbyist sleuths—anyone who can do some serious, non-internet, in-real-life digging. What we have now are fragments:

• A name: Heirloom Christmas Tree Spinner
• A manufacturer: SpinCraft
• A city: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• A patent number: 2733032
• Possible family names: Ulrich, Ulrich Brothers Manufacturing

We want to know the truth. Was my grandfather really involved? Did he help design it? Did he just work at the factory? Or is this a family myth that got embellished over the years? We want to document the real history before it disappears completely.

If you can help us find the story — an old advertisement, a patent filing, a newspaper clipping, a photo from the factory floor, anything — we will honor a teacher or school of your choosing with a donation in your name. This isn't about money for us. It's about memory. It's about giving my mom an answer before it's too late.

Signed, The Wimberly Family