By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

When Marsha Pagenkopf was a little girl, her mother and father bought a tinsel tree that came complete with a color wheel.

“That tree was magic to an 8-year-old,” she said.

She was mesmerized by the color changes and could gaze at the tree for hours.

Several years later, the family moved to a new house. The tree was put up just a few more times after that.

After Marsha grew up and had her own family, she wondered what happened to that tree. Her mother couldn’t seem to remember.

Recently, after her mother died, Marsha and her husband, Mark, renovated the house and moved into it from their farm near Lincolnville.

Marsha was cleaning out the basement one day when she noticed something lodged behind a wooden box under the basement stairs.

She struggled to remove the crate. After she got it out, there behind it was the aluminum tree. It was in its original box with the name “The Standard Store” and “Herington KS” printed on it.

The color wheel was gone, but her daughter, Holly Stenfors, found one for her.

After 50-some years of being lost, the tree is home once again in all its sparkling beauty.