Secrets of the Christmas Tree Trade
Greg Walsh.
格雷格·沃尔什.
Photo: Lucia Buricelli In partnership with Epic Magazine.
照片：Lucia Buricelli 与 Epic 杂志合作。
Squinting through sterile overhead lighting, I scan the emergency room for traces of red and green.
我眯着眼睛透过无菌的头顶灯光，扫视急诊室，寻找红色和绿色的痕迹。
I listen closely for the jingling of bells and the croon of Bing Crosby.
我仔细聆听铃声和宾·克罗斯比的低吟声。
I’m relieved to detect nothing, just injured people groaning, which by this point in December — the 22nd — is practically soothing.
我松了口气，没有发现什么，只是受伤的人在呻吟，到了 12 月 22 日的这个时候，这实际上已经让人感到安慰了。
Lying flat on my back in a hospital bed, covered in sap and bleeding out of my forehead, I don’t feel very Christmasy.
我平躺在医院的病床上，浑身是汁液，额头还在流血，我感觉不太像圣诞节。
I feel concussed.
我感觉自己脑震荡了
Even still, I can’t help but think about Christmas, the holiday that has been my daily reality for two years.
即便如此，我还是忍不住想起圣诞节，这个节日已经成为我两年来每天的现实。
I’ve worked spring, summer, fall, and winter for Santa Claus — or, rather, for a man who looks exactly like Santa Claus, and possibly thinks he is Santa Claus, and is, fittingly, one of the top sellers of Christmas trees in New York City.
我曾为圣诞老人工作过春天、夏天、秋天和冬天——或者更确切地说，为一个长得一模一样的圣诞老人工作，而且可能认为自己就是圣诞老人，而且他恰好是纽约市最畅销的圣诞树之一。
Christmas trees are big business in New York.
圣诞树在纽约是一项大生意。
A lot of people see the quaint plywood shacks that appear on sidewalks just before Thanksgiving, each with its own tiny forest of evergreens, and they imagine that every one is independently owned, maybe by jolly families of lumberjacks looking to make a few holiday bucks.
很多人在感恩节前看到人行道上出现的古色古香的胶合板棚屋，每个棚屋都有自己的小常青树森林，他们想象每个棚屋都是独立拥有的，也许是由希望在假期赚点钱的快乐伐木工家庭拥有的。
That’s what I thought, anyway.
无论如何，我就是这么想的。
In reality, a few eccentric, obsessed, sometimes ruthless tycoons control the sale of almost every single tree in the city.
事实上，一些古怪、痴迷、有时甚至是残酷的大亨控制着这座城市几乎每一棵树的销售。
They call themselves “tree men,” and they spend 11 months a year preparing for Christmastime — which, to them, is a blistering 30-day sprint to grab as much cash as they can.
他们称自己为“树人”，每年花 11 个月的时间为圣诞节做准备——对他们来说，这就是一场为期 30 天的冲刺，以尽可能多地抢到现金。
I learned early on that they’ve carved up the city into territories, that the same Christmas tree can sell for four times as much in Soho as in Staten Island and that turf wars aren’t uncommon.
我很早就了解到，他们已经将这座城市瓜分了，同一棵圣诞树在苏荷区的售价是史坦顿岛的四倍，而且地盘争夺战并不少见。
These days, lower Manhattan is tentatively shared by three former collaborators: Billy Calvoni and his two embittered ex-protégés, George Smith and Heather Neville.
如今，曼哈顿下城暂时由三位前合作者共同居住：比利·卡尔沃尼和他的两位心怀怨恨的前门徒乔治·史密斯和希瑟·内维尔。
Calvoni is a former fruit peddler and current real-estate investor said to have purchased 400 houses in Arizona.
卡尔沃尼曾是一名水果小贩，现在是一名房地产投资者，据说在亚利桑那州购买了 400 栋房屋。
Smith is a part-time carnival operator who once served time for impersonating a police officer during a robbery.
史密斯是一名兼职嘉年华经营者，曾因在一次抢劫中冒充警察而入狱。
Neville is consistently underestimated and intermittently merciless.
内维尔一直被低估并且时不时地无情。
Smith and Neville cut ties with Calvoni because of problems with his late partner, Scott Lechner, a.k.a.
由于卡尔沃尼已故搭档斯科特·莱赫纳（又名斯科特·莱赫纳）的问题，史密斯和内维尔与卡尔沃尼断绝了关系。
Willie the Hat, a diminutive man known for wearing fedoras and sharkskin gloves because sharkskin is the only material thin enough to count cash with.
帽子威利（Willie the Hat）是一个身材矮小的男人，以戴着软呢帽和鲨鱼皮手套而闻名，因为鲨鱼皮是唯一薄到可以用来数现金的材料。
Uptown is split two ways between George Nash and Kevin Hammer, former partners, recent enemies, and currently cautious friends.
住宅区在乔治·纳什和凯文·哈默之间分裂成两部分，他们是前合伙人，最近的敌人，现在是谨慎的朋友。
Nash, who sells to much of Harlem, is a smooth-talking old hippie from Vermont.
纳什是一位来自佛蒙特州、能说会道的老嬉皮士，他的产品销往哈莱姆区的大部分地区。
Hammer is a Brooklyn-born Scientologist and the éminence grise of Christmas trees, by far the most powerful force in the business.
哈默是布鲁克林出生的山达基教徒，也是圣诞树上的显赫人物，是迄今为止该行业最强大的力量。
He is largely responsible for shaping the market into the oligopoly it is today, and at the peak of his powers, Hammer was rumored to own nearly half the tree stands in Manhattan, bringing in more than $1 million each December.
他对将市场塑造成今天的寡头垄断负有主要责任，据传在他权力的巅峰时期，哈默拥有曼哈顿近一半的树摊，每年 12 月带来超过 100 万美元的收入。
According to lore, Hammer lives on a yacht somewhere in the Atlantic, visiting New York only at Christmastime, when he holes up in a midtown hotel room, a pile of cash on the bed and one pit bull squatting on either side of him.
据传说，哈默住在大西洋某处的一艘游艇上，只在圣诞节期间访问纽约，当时他躲在市中心的一家酒店房间里，床上放着一堆现金，一只斗牛犬蹲在他的两侧。
And then there’s Greg Walsh, my boss, in Brooklyn.
然后是我在布鲁克林的老板格雷格·沃尔什。
Greg started out with Calvoni and Lechner back in the ’80s.
格雷格 (Greg) 早在 80 年代就开始与卡尔沃尼 (Calvoni) 和莱希纳 (Lechner) 合作。
Then he split off on his own.
然后他就自己分手了。
Today, Greg owns eight of the larger stands, block-long affairs with acres of pine, adorned with ten-foot snowmen and red-ribbon archways.
如今，格雷格拥有八个较大的看台，这些看台长达一个街区，有数英亩的松树，装饰着十英尺高的雪人和红丝带拱门。
Greg himself is large, with a big belly and a long white beard, so inevitably people compare him to Saint Nick.
格雷格身材魁梧，肚子很大，长着长长的白胡子，所以人们不可避免地把他比作圣尼克。
Greg delights in this.
格雷格对此很高兴。
He keeps a Santa hat on him at all times, and his license plate reads SANTA09.
他始终戴着一顶圣诞老人帽子，他的车牌上写着 SANTA09。
In the summers, he wears red-and-green Hawaiian shirts, and at all times of the year, whenever he enters a business, he shouts, “Ho, ho, ho!” at the teenager standing behind the counter.
夏天，他穿着红绿相间的夏威夷衬衫，一年中的任何时候，每当他进入一家企业时，他都会大喊“嗬，嗬，嗬！”看着站在柜台后面的少年。
This is the third December I’ve sold trees for Greg.
这是我第三个十二月为格雷格卖树。
Chances are I’m selling one of his trees as you read this.
当你读到这篇文章时，我很可能正在卖掉他的一棵树。
It’s a brutal job, standing out in the cold 16 hours a day, but the pay can set you up for months.
这是一份残酷的工作，每天要在寒冷中站 16 个小时，但薪水却可以让你工作好几个月。
The rest of the year, I’ve gotten to see the other side of the industry up close by acting as Greg’s personal assistant — the elf to his Santa.
今年剩下的时间里，我通过担任格雷格的私人助理——他的圣诞老人的小精灵，近距离地看到了这个行业的另一面。
Underneath the ribbons and the tinsel, the New York Christmas-tree business is a complicated and sometimes dangerous game with a sordid history.
在丝带和金属丝的下面，纽约的圣诞树生意是一场复杂的、有时甚至是危险的游戏，有着肮脏的历史。
In a little over a century and a half, getting a Christmas tree has gone from an oddity to a timeless tradition in Manhattan thanks primarily to the efforts of those who sought to profit from them.
在一个半世纪多一点的时间里，在曼哈顿，拥有一棵圣诞树已经从一件奇怪的事变成了一个永恒的传统，这主要归功于那些试图从中获利的人的努力。
Theft, sabotage, and at least one murder have been committed in the Christmas-tree game.
圣诞树游戏中发生了盗窃、破坏和至少一起谋杀案。
I almost died myself, selling them.
我差点因为卖掉它们而死掉。
After what seems like a long time, a nurse approaches my bed and examines the wound above my right eye.
似乎过了很长一段时间，一名护士走到我的床边，检查我右眼上方的伤口。
She picks a pine needle out of my hair and asks, “What on earth were you doing?”
她从我的头发里拔出一根松针，问道：“你到底在做什么？”
I tell her I was selling Christmas trees and things got out of hand.
我告诉她我正在卖圣诞树，结果事情就失控了。
Carr is considered the father of the Manhattan Christmas-tree business, but almost everything we know about him comes from one article published in the New York Tribune in 1878.
卡尔被认为是曼哈顿圣诞树生意之父，但我们对他的了解几乎全部来自 1878 年《纽约论坛报》发表的一篇文章。
Headlined “Mark Carr’s Lucky Speculation in Conifers,” it describes Carr as a “jolly woodman …
它的标题是“马克·卡尔对针叶树的幸运推测”，将卡尔描述为“快乐的樵夫……
whistling away a happy life on the flanks of the Catskills.” “Jolly woodman” isn’t a job and never was, but modern historians think it’s likely Carr worked in a sawmill or a furniture factory, both of which relied on streams for power.
在卡茨基尔山的侧翼度过了幸福的生活。” “快乐的樵夫”不是一份工作，也从来都不是，但现代历史学家认为卡尔很可能在锯木厂或家具厂工作，这两家工厂都依赖溪流获取电力。
In those days, streams froze come December, so one theory is that Carr was out of work, loafing around the forest, when he realized he could chop the forest down and sell it in New York City.
当时，12 月溪流结冰，因此一种说法是卡尔失业了，在森林里闲逛，这时他意识到自己可以砍伐森林并在纽约市出售。
The story goes that Carr ran home to tell his wife, who laughed in his face and told him his idea sucked.
据说，卡尔跑回家告诉他的妻子，妻子当着他的面嘲笑他，告诉他他的想法很糟糕。
To Mrs. Carr, or almost any 19th-century backwoods American, the concept of paying good money for a commonplace natural resource would have seemed insane.
对于卡尔夫人或几乎所有 19 世纪边远地区的美国人来说，花大钱购买普通的自然资源的想法似乎很疯狂。
What’s more, in 1851, most Americans didn’t associate trees with Christmas or even celebrate the holiday very seriously.
更重要的是，在1851年，大多数美国人并没有将树木与圣诞节联系起来，甚至没有非常认真地庆祝这个节日。
Christmas wasn’t declared a national holiday until 1870, and in New York at that time, gift-giving and family gatherings were secondary traditions to an annual drunken citywide riot.
直到 1870 年，圣诞节才被宣布为全国性节日，而在当时的纽约，送礼和家庭聚会只是一年一度的全城醉酒骚乱的次要传统。
Carr felled a wagonload of firs and headed to the big city with his best ox.
卡尔砍倒了一车冷杉，带着他最好的牛前往大城市。
He paid $1 for a permit to sell inside the Washington Market, Old New York’s sprawling wholesale produce bazaar.
他花了 1 美元获得了在华盛顿市场（旧纽约规模庞大的农产品批发市场）内销售的许可证。
At the intersection of Greenwich and Vesey Streets, right outside what’s now the World Trade Center, a fascinated crowd formed around his wagon.
在格林威治街和维西街的交叉口，就在现在的世界贸易中心外面，一群着迷的人群聚集在他的马车周围。
And once he explained what the trees were for — standing upright, indoors, to signify Christmas — he supposedly sold out within the day.
一旦他解释了这些树的用途——在室内直立，象征圣诞节——他据说在一天之内就卖完了。
Most people are reminded Christmas trees exist sometime around Thanksgiving, when they see them for sale on the sidewalk and are overcome with glee.
大多数人在感恩节前后看到圣诞树在人行道上出售并欣喜若狂时，就会想起它们的存在。
Meanwhile, Greg Walsh is finding pine needles floating in his coffee in April.
与此同时，格雷格·沃尔什 (Greg Walsh) 在四月份发现他的咖啡里漂浮着松针。
He spends the summers inspecting potential product by visiting tree farms in North Carolina, Oregon, and Canada.
整个夏天，他都会参观北卡罗来纳州、俄勒冈州和加拿大的林场，检查潜在的产品。
He’s constantly flipping through holiday catalogues, looking for a better deal on ornaments, and by autumn — when I met him — he’s totally consumed with Christmas.
他不断地翻阅节日目录，寻找更划算的装饰品，到了秋天——当我见到他时——他完全沉迷于圣诞节。
One day in October 2020, a phone call roused me from a deep, shameful, unemployed sleep.
2020 年 10 月的一天，一通电话将我从沉睡、羞耻、失业的睡眠中唤醒。
I didn’t recognize the number, but I answered anyway.
我不认识这个号码，但我还是接了电话。
“Why do you want to sell Christmas trees, Owen?” the voice asked, suddenly serene.
“欧文，你为什么想卖圣诞树？”那声音突然平静地问道。
That’s when I realized that this was Greg, the man behind the Craigslist ad I had answered the previous day seeking workers for a sidewalk stand.
就在那时，我意识到这是格雷格，他是我前一天回复的 Craigslist 广告背后的人，该广告正在寻找人行道摊位的工人。
I sat up in bed and thought about the question.
我从床上坐起来，思考着这个问题。
“Never mind,” Greg said.
“没关系，”格雷格说。
“I take that back.
“我收回那句话。
It is fun.
这很有趣。
It’s very fun.
非常有趣。
How would you like to be my assistant?” Greg is a strange combination of impulsive and indecisive, as I’d soon learn.
你愿意当我的助理吗？”我很快就会了解到，格雷格是一个奇怪的人，既冲动又优柔寡断。
I told him I’d love to be his assistant.
我告诉他我很想成为他的助手。
He told me not to get ahead of myself.
他告诉我不要超前。
I said I was sorry.
我说我很抱歉。
He suggested we meet the next day at a bar in Williamsburg for a formal interview.
他建议我们第二天在威廉斯堡的一家酒吧见面，进行正式采访。
“I’ve got a good feeling about you,” he said.
“我对你有好感，”他说。
“That’s it — you’re the assistant.” He ordered two celebratory ginger ales and began to tell me his life story: that he’s sold trees for 38 of his 60 years, that he’s always lived in Queens, that he’s sober, that his teenage son plays too many video games.
“就是这样——你是助理。”他点了两杯庆祝性的姜汁汽水，然后开始向我讲述他的人生故事：他 60 年里有 38 年都在卖树，他一直住在皇后区，他很清醒，他十几岁的儿子玩了太多电子游戏。
“He doesn’t have to be a tree man like me,” Greg said.
“他不必像我一样成为树人，”格雷格说。
“But he has to do something .
“但他必须做点什么。
Be a painter.
成为一名画家。
A mathematician.
一位数学家。
He isn’t even good at video games.
他甚至不擅长电子游戏。
His friends beat him, from what I understand.”
据我了解，他的朋友打败了他。”
I nodded along, wondering whether I should butt in to confirm a few details of the job I’d just accepted, things like hours and pay.
我点点头，想知道是否应该插话确认一下我刚刚接受的工作的一些细节，比如工作时间和工资。
But Greg was a whirlwind, shouting stories nonstop.
但格雷格却是个旋风，不停地大喊大叫。
Every 45 seconds, he paused to take another Christmas-related call, and after each conversation, he summarized the moral character of the caller for me.
每隔 45 秒，他就会停下来接听另一个与圣诞节相关的电话，每次通话结束后，他都会为我总结来电者的道德品质。
“Great guy.” “Good guy.” “Good kid.” After one conversation, he leaned forward and whispered, “ Liar .”
“很棒的家伙。” “好人。” “好孩子。”一番交谈后，他身体前倾，低声道：“骗子。”
Greg claimed to be record-breakingly scatterbrained, and that’s where I, his assistant, would come in.
格雷格声称自己是破纪录的心不在焉的人，这就是我，他的助手，可以发挥作用的地方。
I believed him.
我相信他。
At one point, he stood up and stared out into the distance for 15 seconds.
有一次，他站起来，凝视着远方长达15秒。
Then he said, “I have no fucking idea where I parked my car.”
然后他说：“我他妈的不知道我把车停在哪里了。”
Two days later, Greg and I sat in his living room, eating Chinese food and watching a documentary about the Hindenburg .
两天后，格雷格和我坐在他的客厅里，一边吃着中餐，一边观看一部关于兴登堡号的纪录片。
Greg’s house is extremely narrow and bursting, most of the year, with Christmas miscellany.
格雷格的房子极其狭窄，一年中大部分时间都堆满了圣诞节杂物。
There’s mistletoe everywhere, red ribbon dangling from the furniture, stuffed elves lying lifeless all over the floor.
到处都是槲寄生，家具上挂着红丝带，地板上毫无生气地躺着毛绒小精灵。
“What would you pay for this?” Greg asked as flames ripped through the Hindenburg ’s flimsy exterior.
“你愿意为此付出什么代价？”当火焰撕裂兴登堡号脆弱的外表时，格雷格问道。
He held out a miniature plastic Santa straddling a choo choo train like a motorcycle.
他拿出一个微型塑料圣诞老人，骑在一辆像摩托车一样的火车上。
I said I didn’t think I would pay for it, honestly.
我说说实话，我认为我不会为此付钱。
“All right, what about this?” he asked, producing a Styrofoam snowman wearing cross-country skis.
“好吧，那这个呢？”他一边问道，一边制作了一个穿着越野滑雪板的聚苯乙烯泡沫塑料雪人。
“Do you know what I pay for these?” Greg shouted, his beard bristling.
“你知道我买这些东西要花多少钱吗？”格雷格大喊道，他的胡子竖了起来。
“This is premium stuff!
“这是优质的东西！
You’re killing me!” He tossed the snowman aside.
你这是要杀了我啊！”他把雪人扔到一边。
By far the most crucial decision facing Greg each season was whether to increase the price of the trees.
到目前为止，格雷格每个季节面临的最关键的决定是是否提高树木的价格。
This demanded days of deliberation.
这需要几天的审议。
Greg sat sweating on his sofa, shouting out numbers while I scribbled and erased.
格雷格坐在沙发上，大汗淋漓，大声喊出数字，而我则乱涂乱画、擦掉。
It’s an annual crisis for Greg, who’s torn between the commercial imperative to maximize profit and an emotional imperative to deliver holiday cheer.
对于格雷格来说，这是一年一度的危机，他在利润最大化的商业需求和传递节日欢乐的情感需求之间左右为难。
The mere thought of a disappointed family — deprived of a good tree at a fair price — sends him into a minor depressive spiral.
一想到一个失望的家庭——被剥夺了以合理价格买到一棵好树的机会——就会让他陷入轻微的抑郁漩涡。
Long ago, before he had employees, Greg was a terrible salesman for this very reason.
很久以前，在他拥有员工之前，格雷格就是一个糟糕的推销员，正是因为这个原因。
Lechner, his old partner, who died recently, was the opposite.
他最近去世的老搭档莱希纳则恰恰相反。
He could sell a tree for three times what it was worth, and the customer would walk away smiling.
他可以以三倍于其价值的价格出售一棵树，而顾客会微笑着走开。
“His secret was he just lied to them,” Greg says.
“他的秘密是他只是对他们撒了谎，”格雷格说。
“He made things up.
“他编造了事情。
He said he grew the trees himself on a mountaintop, chopped them down with a hatchet, and carried them home on a mule.
他说，这些树是他自己在山顶上种的，用斧头砍倒，然后用骡子驮回家。
People loved it.
人们喜欢它。
And on every single person, he used the same line.
他对每一个人都用了同样的台词。
‘I hope this is the very best Christmas you’ve ever had.’ He said it real sincere.
“我希望这是你度过的最美好的圣诞节。”他说得很真诚。
It was disgusting to witness.
亲眼目睹真是令人厌恶。
But what are we really selling here?
但我们在这里真正卖的是什么？
Happiness, right?
幸福，对吗？
So, in that sense, they got a great deal.”
所以，从这个意义上说，他们得到了很多好处。”
We settled on hiking the trees by $10, enough to cover inflation and Greg’s ever-increasing expenses plus maybe a tiny bit extra.
我们决定徒步旅行 10 美元，足以支付通货膨胀和格雷格不断增加的开支，再加上一点额外的费用。
It was a compromise between what I’ve come to think of as the two halves of his personality: Greg and Santa.
这是我所认为的他性格的两部分（格雷格和圣诞老人）之间的妥协。
Greg is a capitalist, but Santa is a philanthropist.
格雷格是资本家，但圣诞老人是慈善家。
Perhaps because Greg has chosen to look like Santa all year, the shape of the split is incredibly uncertain.
也许是因为格雷格一整年都选择看起来像圣诞老人，所以分裂的形状非常不确定。
This uncertainty confuses Greg as well.
这种不确定性也让格雷格感到困惑。
“I’m not really Santa,” I heard him say to himself once.
“我不是真正的圣诞老人，”我有一次听到他对自己说。
“But then again, in a way, I am because the kids believe it.
“但话又说回来，在某种程度上，我是因为孩子们相信这一点。
And I do give things away for free on occasion.
有时我确实会免费赠送一些东西。
I’m Greg, obviously.
显然，我是格雷格。
But what does that mean?
但这意味着什么？
Greg.
格雷格.
That’s just a word, right?
这只是一个词，对吧？
Greg .” It was fascinating to study a life so completely defined by Christmas, the season many people consider the most emotionally draining time of the year.
格雷格。”研究完全由圣诞节定义的生活是很有趣的，许多人认为圣诞节是一年中最令人精神疲惫的时刻。
A young customer.
一位年轻的顾客。
Photo: Lucia Buricelli One of New York’s first Christmas tree tycoons was a Santa Claus lookalike.
照片：Lucia Buricelli 纽约最早的圣诞树大亨之一长得酷似圣诞老人。
He was a wholesaler named E.
他是一位名叫 E 的批发商。
K.
K.
Chapman, and at his peak, he cut and shipped 400,000 trees a year all over the United States.
查普曼在其巅峰时期每年砍伐并运往美国各地 40 万棵树。
A big man, he grew out his white beard, wore a floppy hat, and almost certainly employed dozens of child laborers.
他身材高大，留着白胡子，戴着一顶软帽子，几乎可以肯定雇佣了数十名童工。
He ruled the business from the end of the Civil War until his death in 1928, a six-decade stretch during which the Christmas tree cemented its role in the American holiday tradition.
从内战结束到 1928 年去世，他一直统治着这个行业，在这六年的时间里，圣诞树巩固了其在美国节日传统中的地位。
The New York Christmas-tree market had continued an almost uninterrupted ascent since Carr delivered his first firs.
自从卡尔推出第一棵圣诞树以来，纽约圣诞树市场几乎不间断地上涨。
A sprawling evergreen market sprung up annually at his original corner at Greenwich and Vesey, and before long, more than 200,000 pines and firs were pouring into Manhattan by wagon, boat, and train.
每年，在他最初位于格林威治和维西的街角都会涌现出一个庞大的常绿市场，不久之后，超过 20 万棵松树和冷杉就通过马车、船只和火车涌入曼哈顿。
Trees were piled so high along the sidewalks that they blocked out the sun, and businesses had to light their lanterns even during the day.
人行道上的树木堆得太高，遮住了阳光，即使在白天，商家也必须点亮灯笼。
By the 1890s, demand was outstripping supply, giving rise to high prices and beginning an adversarial relationship between tree men and New Yorkers who think they’re being gouged.
到了 1890 年代，需求超过了供应，导致价格上涨，并开始在树人和认为自己被欺负的纽约人之间建立敌对关系。
In the rare years when sellers overestimated demand, newspapers joyously reported scenes of their failure as they dragged their worthless surplus to the river and tossed it in.
在卖家高估需求的罕见年份里，报纸会高兴地报道他们失败的场景，因为他们将毫无价值的剩余产品拖到河里扔进河里。
Besides occasional public unrest, another problem with the Christmas-tree trade was that, if you could get one in your house, it was sometimes lethal.
除了偶尔发生的公众骚乱之外，圣诞树贸易的另一个问题是，如果你能在家里得到一棵圣诞树，有时它是致命的。
Evergreens were typically lit by wax candles balanced carefully on branches in the Altdeutsche tradition.
按照老德意志传统，常青树通常是用小心地平衡在树枝上的蜡烛点燃的。
More than one Santa found his beard ignited and his face melted.
不止一位圣诞老人发现自己的胡子被点燃，脸被融化。
One year around the turn of the century, sick kids watched in horror as a young nurse burned to death after accidentally backing up into the tree at a children’s ward.
世纪之交的一年，孩子们惊恐地看着一名年轻护士在儿童病房不小心倒车撞到树上后被烧死。
In 1900, in a New York City public school, a little girl died when her snow-fairy costume caught fire as she helped distribute presents.
1900 年，在纽约市的一所公立学校，一名小女孩在帮忙分发礼物时，她的雪仙服装起火，导致死亡。
Having had enough, the Board of Education issued an order: “Never again on school property should a lighted candle be used in connection with Christmas tree entertainments.” Newspapers began suggesting that buckets of water be kept next to trees and that one member of every family be appointed fire warden.
受够了之后，教育委员会发布了一项命令：“再也不要在学校财产上使用点燃的蜡烛进行圣诞树娱乐活动。”报纸开始建议在树旁放水桶，并任命每个家庭的一名成员为消防员。
Even after the switch to electric lightbulbs, tree fires continued.
即使改用电灯泡后，树木火灾仍在继续。
It was still such a problem by 1953 that when a novelty fire-extinguishing ornament was found to emit phosgene, a gas used in chemical warfare, the devices weren’t banned.
到了 1953 年，这个问题仍然存在，当人们发现一种新颖的灭火装饰品会释放出光气（一种用于化学战的气体）时，这些装置并没有被禁止。
New Yorkers simply learned to live with the risk of tragedy.
纽约人只是学会了承受悲剧的风险。
Even today, people ask how to stop their tree from igniting.
即使在今天，人们仍然询问如何阻止他们的树被点燃。
I never know what to tell them.
我永远不知道该告诉他们什么。
“Just don’t set it on fire,” I say, “and you should be fine.”
“只要别把它点燃，”我说，“你应该没事的。”
The author at work.
作者在工作中。
Photo: Lucia Buricelli Tree!” somebody shouts and drops a Christmas tree trunk first off a 15-foot ledge directly at my head.
照片：Lucia Buricelli 树！”有人大喊一声，把一根圣诞树干从 15 英尺高的壁架上扔下来，直接砸在我的头上。
I’m prepared, and I block it with both palms, allowing my hands to sink with the tree’s momentum, redirecting it so that I’ve caught it against my chest.
我做好了准备，用双手挡住它，让我的手随着树的冲力下沉，改变它的方向，这样我就可以将它抓住在我的胸口上。
I’ve caught hundreds of trees tossed from all heights.
我已经捕捉到数百棵树从各个高度被扔下来。
It’s a big part of the job.
这是工作的重要组成部分。
There’s a reason New Yorkers often say it feels like the trees arrive overnight — that one morning it’s an ordinary gray November and the next the sidewalks are canopied in green.
纽约人经常说，树木感觉像是一夜之间到来的，这是有原因的——一天早上，还是普通的灰色十一月，第二天，人行道就被绿色覆盖了。
It’s because they do arrive overnight, in massive uncovered tractor-trailers that take hours to empty, sometimes until sunrise.
这是因为它们确实是在一夜之间到达的，装在巨大的无盖牵引拖车中，需要几个小时才能清空，有时甚至要等到日出。
The trees are wrapped in twine and packed tight, stacked ten high horizontally between metal uprights.
这些树用麻线包裹起来，紧紧地堆放在金属立柱之间，水平堆放十层高。
Depending on the weather where they’re coming from, they’re often covered in snow and ice.
根据他们来自的天气，他们经常被冰雪覆盖。
The only way to get them off the truck is the old-fashioned way: climbing up the trunks and chucking them off one by one through the frozen air, just as the first tree men tossed them off ships and wagons.
把它们从卡车上卸下来的唯一方法是老式的方法：爬上树干，在冰冷的空气中将它们一根一根地扔掉，就像第一批树人把它们从船上和马车上扔下来一样。
It’s a striking sight: Three or four silhouettes pacing atop a tower of snow-capped evergreens, a steady stream of trees arcing into the night, a line of figures waiting below to receive them.
这是一个引人注目的景象：三四个人影在白雪皑皑的常青树塔顶上踱步，源源不断的树木在夜色中蜿蜒而行，一排人影在下面等待着他们。
After catching a Christmas tree against your chest, you shift it onto your shoulder, sort of like how a parade soldier holds a rifle upright.
在胸前抓住一棵圣诞树后，你将它转移到肩膀上，有点像阅兵士兵直立步枪的方式。
Then you march it to the A-frames — those pyramidal wooden structures the trees lean on — and jog back to grab another.
然后你把它拖到 A 形框架——树木所倚靠的金字塔形木结构——然后慢跑回来抓住另一个。
At first you’re grabbing two- and three-footers by the armful, but as the pile depletes, you’re shouldering 70-pound six-footers and 100-pound nine-footers, and the entire crew is dragging 22-foot behemoths off the truck bed and leaning them against brick walls.
起初，你要一大堆地抓起两英尺和三英尺的物体，但随着堆的耗尽，你要扛起 70 磅重的六英尺物体和 100 磅重的九英尺物体，整个工作人员正在将 22 英尺的庞然大物从卡车上拖下来，并将它们靠在砖墙上。
By 4 a.m., you forget your name and start to feel certain the night will never end.
凌晨 4 点，你忘记了自己的名字，并开始确信夜晚永远不会结束。
Employees sleep in a truck.
员工睡在卡车里。
Photo: Lucia Buricelli Greg, on the other hand, is never happier than when the trees arrive.
照片：Lucia Buricelli 另一方面，当树木到达时，格雷格最高兴了。
His twin dispositions are at full tilt: The businessman in him is ecstatic to behold a truckload of cash denominated in conifers, and the Santa in him is overjoyed at such a Christmasy tableau.
他的双重性格得到了充分发挥：他内心的商人看到一卡车以针叶树计价的现金欣喜若狂，而他内心的圣诞老人则对这样的圣诞景象欣喜若狂。
Wearing his Santa hat and his best red sweatshirt, he splurges on Poland Springs and cold cuts for the crew.
他戴着圣诞帽，穿着最好的红色运动衫，为船员们挥霍了波兰温泉和冷盘。
He keeps morale up by handing out ham and shouting motivational quotes from the writings of Rumi: “Remember, the entrance to sanctuary is inside you!”
他通过分发火腿并大声喊出鲁米著作中的励志名言来保持士气：“记住，庇护所的入口就在你的内心！”
Trees arrive almost every night for the first week of the season until the stands are totally stocked.
在这个季节的第一周，树木几乎每天晚上都会到达，直到看台上的树木全部装满为止。
Each tractor-trailer needs to stop at several of Greg’s locations, which means following them along Brooklyn’s empty streets in a small fleet of cargo vans.
每辆牵引拖车都需要在格雷格的几个地点停下来，这意味着一小群货车沿着布鲁克林空荡荡的街道跟随它们。
Guys toss wreaths and a few trees in the back and nap on them in between stops, trying to rest up for the hard days ahead.
人们在后面扔花圈和几棵树，并在停靠期间在上面打盹，试图在接下来的艰难日子里休息。
It’s always a tough night when trees arrive, but it can be peaceful, too, gazing half-awake out the van window at the silent city.
当树木到来时，夜晚总是很艰难，但也可以很平静，半睡半醒地凝视着车窗外寂静的城市。
Greg never seems the least bit sleepy.
格雷格似乎从来没有半点困意。
Once, in 2020, he gave me a ride back to my apartment after unloading a particularly enormous load from Oregon.
2020 年，有一次，他从俄勒冈州卸下了一件特别巨大的货物后，送我回公寓。
The sun had just come up over the ocean.
太阳刚刚从海平面上升起。
The first light was hitting the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline, still lit up from the night before, and Greg was eating Doritos while I tried to doze against the dashboard.
第一道曙光照在布鲁克林大桥和曼哈顿的天际线上，前一天晚上仍然亮着，格雷格正在吃多力多滋，而我试图靠在仪表盘上打瞌睡。
He passed me the bag and said, “I’ll never get tired of that.”
他把包递给我说：“我永远不会厌倦这个。”
Headlights flashed on and off in George Nash’s side-view mirror.
乔治·纳什的后视镜中的车头灯忽明忽暗。
It was late November 1974 along Interstate 91 in central Vermont, and Nash was heading south in a flatbed full of fresh-cut balsam firs.
那是 1974 年 11 月下旬，纳什正沿着佛蒙特州中部 91 号州际公路向南行驶，平板车上铺满了鲜切的香脂冷杉。
He’d never trucked Christmas trees before, never thought too hard about them either.
他以前从未用卡车运输过圣诞树，也从未认真考虑过它们。
He was just a carpenter working a side gig, and now he was getting flagged down for who knows what reason.
他只是一个兼职的木匠，现在却因为不知道什么原因被标记了。
He recognized the vehicle behind him — a rickety van he’d just passed traveling in the opposite direction.
他认出了身后的车辆——一辆摇摇晃晃的货车，他刚刚经过，朝相反的方向行驶。
The driver must have spun around in a real hurry.
司机一定是太着急了。
Nash pulled into a filling station just outside White River Junction, and the van shambled in behind.
纳什把车开进怀特河枢纽外的一个加油站，面包车摇摇晃晃地跟在后面。
To Nash’s surprise, a teenager emerged, tiny and wiry, wearing Puma sneakers, blue jeans, and a T-shirt.
让纳什惊讶的是，一个少年出现了，身材娇小，精瘦，穿着彪马运动鞋、蓝色牛仔裤和 T 恤。
It was 10 degrees out.
气温为 10 度。
In a thick Brooklyn accent, the kid asked Nash where he got the Christmas trees.
孩子用浓重的布鲁克林口音问纳什从哪里得到圣诞树。
“A farm up north,” Nash said.
“北方的一个农场，”纳什说。
Before he knew it, the kid was jamming him into a phone booth, feeding him quarters, telling him to call the farmer and ask if he’ll supply more.
在他意识到之前，那孩子把他塞进了电话亭，给他提供了宿舍，并让他给农民打电话，问他是否可以提供更多。
Nash asked what he had in mind.
纳什问他有什么想法。
The kid said he was going to sell them on the sidewalk in New York City.
那孩子说他要在纽约市的人行道上卖掉它们。
Nash’s farmer answered and said he could spare 400 firs.
纳什的农民回答说他可以腾出 400 棵冷杉。
The kid said that would do and that he wanted Nash to deliver them.
孩子说这样就可以了，他希望纳什把它们送来。
Nash hadn’t planned on more trucking, but there was something about the kid that made him agree.
纳什并没有计划进行更多的卡车运输，但这个孩子身上的某些特质让他同意了。
Nash couldn’t possibly have known that the kid would go on to revolutionize the Christmas-tree business and rule the industry for decades, that his name would be spoken in whispers, that his every action would be the subject of myth and rumor.
纳什不可能知道这个孩子会继续彻底改变圣诞树行业并统治这个行业数十年，他的名字会被低声提及，他的一举一动都会成为神话和谣言的主题。
The two men shook hands.
两人握手。
Nash asked the kid his name.
纳什问孩子的名字。
This was the moment that changed a century of New York Christmas-tree convention.
这一刻改变了纽约一个世纪以来的圣诞树惯例。
Since the days of Mark Carr, most New Yorkers could get trees only by trekking to the wholesalers downtown.
自马克·卡尔时代以来，大多数纽约人只能通过长途跋涉到市中心的批发商才能获得树木。
Some florists and bodegas would stock a few outside their doors, but there weren’t tree lots with hundreds of balsams and Frasers on your local corner.
一些花店和酒窖会在门外储备一些香脂，但在你当地的角落里并没有种植数百株香脂和弗雷泽的树丛。
Hammer’s innovation was simple: He was the first to go over the heads of the middlemen and source trees himself and the first to discover the power of an obscure city ordinance called the Coniferous Tree Exception.
哈默的创新很简单：他是第一个超越中间商并亲自获取树木的人，也是第一个发现名为“针叶树例外”的晦涩城市法令的力量的人。
Adopted in 1938 amid a dispute between Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and street peddlers, it says that anyone can sell trees on the sidewalk if they get permission from the nearest business.
该法案于 1938 年通过，当时市长菲奥雷洛·拉瓜迪亚 (Fiorello La Guardia) 与街头小贩之间发生了争执，该法案规定，任何人都可以在获得最近企业的许可的情况下在人行道上出售树木。
It was Hammer who took Christmas trees out of the downtown markets and onto the sidewalks.
是哈默将圣诞树从市中心市场带到了人行道上。
Today, Hammer runs a vertically integrated operation, sourcing trees and transporting them to a network of direct-to-retail locations.
如今，Hammer 开展垂直整合业务，采购树木并将其运输到直接零售地点网络。
Competitors are awed by his logistical genius, though the true scale of his operation is unknown because his methods are secretive.
竞争对手们对他的后勤天才感到敬畏，尽管由于他的方法保密，他的行动的真实规模尚不清楚。
The mailing address listed for his corporation, Evergreen East, leads to a strip mall in Belleair Bluffs, Florida.
他的公司 Evergreen East 列出的邮寄地址指向佛罗里达州贝莱尔布拉夫斯的一家露天购物中心。
Hammer is whispered about but never witnessed, a Keyser Söze of Christmas who has purposefully shrouded his own story in myth.
哈默是圣诞节的凯泽·索泽，人们私下议论却从未亲眼目睹，他故意用神话掩盖自己的故事。
He wouldn’t talk to me, but here is that story as the tree men know it.
他不会跟我说话，但这就是树人所知道的故事。
Kevin Hammer was born circa 1955 and raised by adoptive parents, growing up in Bensonhurst under the shadow of the then-brand-new Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
凯文·哈默 (Kevin Hammer) 出生于 1955 年左右，由养父母抚养长大，在当时全新的维拉扎诺海峡大桥的阴影下的本森赫斯特长大。
His father owned a novelty-goods store, selling whoopee cushions, electric-shock pens, and candy cigarettes.
他的父亲拥有一家新奇商品商店，出售呼呼垫、电击笔和糖果香烟。
In his late teens, Hammer dropped out of high school, became a hippie, and allegedly developed a heroin habit, which he kicked by throwing himself into the Church of Scientology.
在他十几岁的时候，哈默从高中退学，成为一名嬉皮士，据称还染上了海洛因的恶习，后来他加入了山达基教会，戒掉了这个恶习。
One day, Hammer somehow discovered the Coniferous Tree Exception, borrowed a van, and gunned it for New England, where he fatefully encountered George Nash on Interstate 91.
有一天，哈默不知何故发现了针叶树例外，他借了一辆货车，开往新英格兰，在那里他在 91 号州际公路上命运般地遇到了乔治·纳什。
Hammer’s first stand was on West 80th and Broadway, outside Zabar’s.
Hammer 的第一个摊位位于西 80 街和百老汇，Zabar 店外。
He stood on the sidewalk 80 hours a week, netting $600 by Christmas.
他每周在人行道上站 80 小时，到圣诞节时就赚了 600 美元。
The next December, he opened a second stand, then several more.
第二年 12 月，他开设了第二家摊位，随后又开设了几家摊位。
By the mid-1980s, Hammer presided over an empire of plywood shacks selling tens of thousands of trees across Manhattan.
到 20 世纪 80 年代中期，哈默掌管了一个胶合板棚屋帝国，在曼哈顿出售数万棵树。
As Hammer got richer, though, he receded from public view, moving from New York to Clearwater, Florida, home of the global headquarters of Scientology.
然而，随着哈默变得更加富有，他从公众视野中消失，从纽约搬到了佛罗里达州克利尔沃特，那里是山达基教全球总部的所在地。
(A March 1979 edition of Auditor , a church periodical, shows his name on a list of people who have gone “clear.”) According to people familiar with his operations, Hammer cultivated a tight circle of Scientologist advisers — individuals whose names I also found in a database of church members.
（1979 年 3 月版的教会期刊《Auditor》中，他的名字出现在一份“清白”人员名单上。）据熟悉其运作的人士透露，哈默培养了一个紧密的山达基顾问圈子——我也在教会成员数据库中找到了他们的名字。
Together they oversaw his sprawling evergreen realm with autocratic control.
他们一起以独裁的方式监督着他那庞大的常青王国。
I’ve met several people who’ve sold Christmas trees for Hammer.
我见过几个为 Hammer 出售圣诞树的人。
Almost all of them asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
由于担心遭到报复，几乎所有人都要求保持匿名。
They said that to work for Hammer, there is no interview and there is no application.
他们说，到Hammer工作，没有面试，也没有申请。
The only way to enter his network is to be referred by an insider.
进入他的网络的唯一方法是通过内部人士的推荐。
You and a partner — Hammer’s sellers always work in pairs — call a number around October, and a voice instructs you both to show up at a certain location (typically a sidewalk outside a bodega) around Thanksgiving.
你和一个合作伙伴（Hammer 的卖家总是成对工作）在 10 月份左右拨打一个号码，一个声音会指示你们俩在感恩节前后出现在某个地点（通常是杂货店外的人行道）。
When you arrive, the two of you wait, possibly hours, potentially days, for another phone call from a different number.
当您到达时，两人会等待另一个号码打来的电话，可能是几个小时，也可能是几天。
A new voice instructs you to construct a small shack out of pallets, plywood, even garbage, then continue waiting for the arrival of hundreds of Christmas trees, which will soon appear overnight along with clippers, chain saws, and plastic netting.
一个新的声音指示你用托盘、胶合板甚至垃圾建造一个小棚屋，然后继续等待数百棵圣诞树的到来，它们很快就会在一夜之间与剪刀、链锯和塑料网一起出现。
You are instructed to sell each tree at the highest possible price.
您被指示以尽可能高的价格出售每棵树。
It’s cash only.
只收现金。
The money is collected each day by a person who pulls up in a black SUV unannounced.
每天都有一个人在未经通知的情况下开着一辆黑色SUV来收取这笔钱。
At no point does anyone utter the name “Kevin Hammer.” Sellers discover their employer’s identity, if they discover it at all, through the grapevine chatter of veteran tree men.
从来没有人说出“凯文·哈默”这个名字。卖家可以通过资深树人的小道消息来发现雇主的身份（如果他们真的发现的话）。
Performance is assessed by a rotating cast of supervisors, whom sellers suspect use aliases and who enforce a comprehensive system of deductions for work infractions.
绩效由轮流的主管进行评估，卖家怀疑这些主管使用化名，并对工作违规行为执行全面的扣除制度。
Sit down: minus $20.
坐下：减$20。
Go for a walk: minus $50.
去散步：减 50 美元。
Secret shoppers, sent by Hammer, buy trees with marked bills to check for theft.
哈默派来的秘密购物者购买带有标记账单的树木，以检查是否被盗。
Hammer is said to occasionally appear to buy trees from himself.
据说哈默偶尔会向自己购买树木。
He doesn’t use a disguise because no one knows what he looks like.
他不伪装，因为没有人知道他长什么样。
It’s worth noting that none of the tree men I know can quite explain what makes them so afraid of Hammer.
值得注意的是，我认识的树人中没有一个能完全解释为什么他们如此害怕哈默。
As far as I can tell, aside from stiffing his workers, Hammer has never exacted revenge upon any individual.
据我所知，除了对他的工人进行严厉打击之外，哈默从未对任何人进行过报复。
When a competitor crosses him, he simply dumps 500 trees across the street from their best location and undercuts their prices.
当竞争对手与他作对时，他只需将 500 棵树从最佳位置扔到街对面，并降低价格即可。
But that’s just business.
但这只是生意。
One seller, however, did tell me that some years ago he was squatting in a punk house in New Orleans when he mentioned selling Christmas trees in New York City.
然而，一位卖家确实告诉我，几年前，当他提到在纽约市出售圣诞树时，他正蹲在新奥尔良的一间朋克屋里。
A fellow squatter asked if he worked for a man named Kevin Hammer.
一位占屋者问他是否为一个名叫凯文·哈默的人工作。
He said he did and a look of terror came over the man’s face, then the man wouldn’t say anything more.
他说是的，那人的脸上浮现出恐惧的神色，然后那人就不再再说什么了。
Fatigue can be dangerous.
疲劳可能很危险。
Someone can drop a 15-footer off a truck onto your toes; a chain saw can kick back and hit you in the face; before my time, a man had a psychotic episode and tried to slice his way inside the trailer with a box cutter and the guys had to barricade the door.
有人可以将一个 15 英尺高的卡车从卡车上扔到你的脚趾上；链锯可能会反弹并击中您的脸部；在我之前，一名男子患有精神病，他试图用美工刀切开拖车进入拖车，这些人不得不把门挡住。
One day, I woke from a nap and found a loaded handgun lying on the ornaments table, pointing at the sidewalk, where mothers were pushing strollers.
有一天，我从午睡中醒来，发现装饰品桌上放着一把上了膛的手枪，枪指着人行道，那里有妈妈们推着婴儿车。
None of the customers had noticed.
没有一个顾客注意到。
Panicking, I covered the gun with stuffed snowmen and roped the area off with red ribbon.
我惊慌失措，用填充雪人盖住了枪，并用红丝带将这个区域围起来。
When the police arrived, an officer picked up the gun with two fingers and requested a box.
当警察到达时，一名警官用两根手指拿起枪，并要求提供一个盒子。
I asked how big.
我问有多大。
It can be soothing to watch winter settle over New York from a single street corner.
从一个街角观看冬季降临纽约是一件令人心旷神怡的事情。
Day after day, the same people walk by, pushing the same strollers, pulling the same dogs, shouting the same obscenities.
日复一日，同样的人走过，推着同样的婴儿车，拉着同样的狗，喊着同样的脏话。
As a tree man, you become part of the landscape of the city, and that means embracing chaos as well as acts of kindness.
作为一名树人，你成为城市景观的一部分，这意味着拥抱混乱和善行。
Every year, random strangers stop by the stand bearing six-packs, sandwiches, cookies, and entire Thanksgiving dinners, never asking for a twig in return.
每年，都会有陌生人带着六罐装、三明治、饼干和整个感恩节晚餐来到摊位，从不要求一根树枝作为回报。
By December 20, the sidewalk has been picked clean.
到12月20日，人行道已被清理干净。
Practically every tree has been sold, and the ones that remain are haunting, crooked, alien-looking things.
几乎每棵树都被卖掉了，剩下的都是令人难以忘怀的、弯曲的、看起来像外星人的东西。
The days get shorter and the hours feel longer, and eventually there’s hardly anything to do but shiver.
日子越来越短，时间越来越长，最终除了颤抖之外几乎没有什么可做的。
I try to stay warm any way I can: jumping, jogging, surrounding myself with small heaters and slowly rotating.
我会尽一切努力保持温暖：跳跃、慢跑、用小加热器包围自己以及慢慢旋转。
That’s known as the “tree-man rotisserie.” But nothing works for long.
这就是所谓的“树人烤肉店”。但没有什么能长久有效。
There comes a point when the cold has accumulated within you and you’re still freezing even when you’re supposedly warm.
总有一天，寒冷会在你体内积聚，即使你本应很温暖，但你仍然感到寒冷。
The fluids in your brain seem to freeze up, too, and your thoughts start to make a little less sense.
你大脑中的液体似乎也冻结了，你的想法开始变得不那么有意义。
By this point in December, even Greg is exhausted.
到了十二月的这个时候，就连格雷格也已经筋疲力尽了。
Although a sixth of the season remains, something like 99 percent of the money has come in.
尽管本赛季还剩六分之一，但大约 99% 的资金已经到位。
And for weeks now, he’s been racing around town visiting each of his locations once a day, assuming the role of Santa as soon as he arrives.
几周来，他每天都在城里跑遍他的每个地点，一到达就扮演圣诞老人的角色。
He speeds up in his truck, shouting “Ho, ho, ho!” out the window, stumbles onto the sidewalk and begins posing for pictures with customers, who throng around him.
他开着卡车加速，大喊“嗬，嗬，嗬！”窗外，跌跌撞撞地走上人行道，开始与围观的顾客合影留念。
Initially he seems to relish the unconditional love that comes with donning the red suit, but eventually the attention becomes draining.
最初，他似乎很享受穿上红色西装所带来的无条件的爱，但最终，注意力逐渐耗尽。
One night late last season, Greg and I were sitting in the shack, staring vacantly at the wall, eating cookies.
上赛季末的一个晚上，格雷格和我坐在小屋里，茫然地盯着墙壁，吃着饼干。
Greg was in full Santa regalia.
格雷格穿着全套圣诞老人服装。
“This moment in time will be lost in the mix of a million moments in time just like it,” he said after a prolonged silence.
“这个时刻将会像它一样消失在一百万个时刻的混合中，”他在长时间的沉默后说道。
“There’s certain things you remember in life.
“生活中有些事情你会记得。
This won’t be one of them.”
这不会是其中之一。”
There was a knock at the door, and I opened it a crack.
有人敲门，我把门打开一条缝。
It was a mother and her little boy, who told me he’d seen Santa walk inside.
那是一位母亲和她的小男孩，他告诉我他看到圣诞老人走进来。
He wondered if he might be able to meet him.
他想知道是否能见到他。
I turned to Greg, who was leaning back in his chair, eyes closed, making a slashing gesture across his throat.
我转向格雷格，他靠在椅子上，闭着眼睛，在喉咙上做了一个砍断的手势。
I turned back to the boy with his big, sad, expectant eyes.
我回头看着那个男孩，他的大眼睛里充满了悲伤和期待。
Strangely, in that moment, it was Greg for whom I felt more sympathy.
奇怪的是，在那一刻，我更同情的是格雷格。
“Santa flew back to the North Pole,” I began saying through the crack, but just then Greg leapt up and threw the door wide open.
“圣诞老人飞回北极了。”我开始透过门缝说道，但就在这时，格雷格跳了起来，把门打开了。
“Ho, ho, ho!” he said.
“嗬，嗬，嗬！”他说。
“It’s Santa!
“是圣诞老人！
Here we go.” I sat back down and closed my eyes, searching for the entrance to the sanctuary inside me.
我们走吧。”我坐下来，闭上眼睛，寻找我内心庇护所的入口。
Evaluating a tree.
评估一棵树。
Photo: Lucia Buricelli Nash worked with Hammer until the mid-1980s, when he grew tired of Hammer’s increasingly tyrannical management techniques, and started a major rival called Uptown Christmas Trees.
照片：Lucia Buricelli Nash 一直与 Hammer 合作，直到 20 世纪 80 年代中期，当时他厌倦了 Hammer 日益专制的管理技巧，并创办了一家名为 Uptown Christmas Trees 的主要竞争对手。
For a while, Nash and Hammer coexisted amicably.
有一段时间，纳什和哈默友好相处。
But eventually war broke out over the right to sell outside the city’s Rite Aids — that’s prime real estate — and the two former friends spent years sabotaging each other, setting up competing locations on opposite sides of the same street corner.
但最终，关于在该市的 Rite Aids（这是优质房地产）外出售的权利爆发了战争，这两位前朋友花了数年时间互相破坏，在同一个街角的两侧建立了竞争的地点。
Recently, they have reached a détente.
最近，他们达成了缓和。
This kind of alliance, rivalry, and wary coexistence is common among tree men.
这种联盟、竞争和警惕的共存在树人中很常见。
The big names have all known one another for years or once worked for each other, and among them there is a delicate balance.
这些大人物都彼此认识多年或曾经为对方工作过，他们之间存在着一种微妙的平衡。
They are like a dysfunctional family, harboring and overcoming grudges, in direct competition but united by a shared purpose.
他们就像一个功能失调的家庭，怀恨在心，克服怨恨，相互竞争，但为了共同的目标而团结在一起。
The primary method by which a tycoon can upset the equilibrium of the business is outbidding a competitor at the Parks Department auction.
大亨打破商业平衡的主要方法是在公园部门的拍卖中出价高于竞争对手。
Every four years, the rights to sell trees at high-traffic public spaces such as city parks and subway stops are auctioned off, and each kingpin assumes they will retain control of their prized locations.
每四年，在城市公园和地铁站等人流量大的公共场所出售树木的权利就会被拍卖，每个主要人物都认为他们将保留对其珍贵地点的控制权。
Generally, territories are respected.
一般来说，领土是受到尊重的。
But every now and then, after a long period of peace, someone sneakily bids outside their dominion.
但时不时地，在长期的和平之后，有人偷偷地在他们的领地之外出价。
The betrayal isn’t revealed until all the major players gather around a long table at the Parks Department on Fifth Avenue and simultaneously open sealed envelopes containing the auction’s results.
直到所有主要参与者聚集在第五大道公园部门的一张长桌旁，同时打开装有拍卖结果的密封信封后，背叛才被揭露。
Once a location is conquered, it’s off the table until the next auction.
一旦一个地点被征服，它就不再被考虑，直到下一次拍卖。
I know of only one tree man who’s been murdered in the line of duty.
据我所知，只有一名树人在执行任务时被谋杀。
Glenn Walker was an attorney turned peddler who lived most of the year in Tallahassee with his wife, Donna, and a son they called Rascalhead.
格伦·沃克 (Glenn Walker) 是一名律师，后来成为小贩，一年中大部分时间与妻子唐娜 (Donna) 和一个被他们称为拉斯卡黑德 (Rascalhead) 的儿子住在塔拉哈西 (Tallahassee)。
Every summer, fall, and winter, he drove up the coast to hawk watermelons, pumpkins, and Christmas trees in New York.
每年夏天、秋天和冬天，他都会开车沿着海岸到纽约兜售西瓜、南瓜和圣诞树。
One day in November 1992, two men in long leather coats strolled into his lot in Baychester and demanded $3,000 cash.
1992 年 11 月的一天，两名穿着长皮大衣的男子走进他位于贝切斯特的停车场，索要 3,000 美元现金。
They called it protection money, and Walker obediently paid up.
他们称之为保护费，沃克乖乖地交了钱。
The next year, however, he took matters into his own hands, hiring three overnight security guards to patrol the seven-foot fence surrounding his lot.
然而，第二年，他把事情掌握在自己手中，雇佣了三名夜间保安，在他的场地周围七英尺高的围栏上巡逻。
When the two gentlemen returned on Black Friday, Walker declined their protection.
当两位先生在黑色星期五返回时，沃克拒绝了他们的保护。
A week later, unseen attackers lobbed twin firebombs over Walker’s defenses, igniting several hundred of his white pines and Douglas firs.
一周后，看不见的袭击者向沃克的防御工事投掷了两枚燃烧弹，点燃了他的数百棵白松和道格拉斯冷杉。
Fire marshals interviewed Walker as he surveyed the ashes, but he knew better than to name names.
消防队长在沃克勘察骨灰时对他进行了采访，但他知道最好不要说出名字。
Stubbornly, he reinforced his fence and hired more guards, one armed.
他固执地加固了栅栏，并雇佣了更多警卫，其中一名武装。
The next year — on November 2, 1994, at 3:15 p.m.
第二年——1994 年 11 月 2 日下午 3:15
— two men burst into Walker’s office while he and his secretary, Dirceline Delgado, prepared for the season.
——沃克和他的秘书迪尔塞琳·德尔加多 (Dirceline Delgado) 正在为赛季做准备时，两名男子闯入了他的办公室。
Walker was chatting on the phone with Donna when the men entered.
当这些人进来时，沃克正在和唐娜打电话。
One man seized Delgado, holding her down.
一名男子抓住了德尔加多，将她按倒在地。
The other tossed Walker from his desk onto a frayed brown couch.
另一个人把沃克从办公桌上扔到一张磨损的棕色沙发上。
He put a gun to Walker’s left temple.
他用枪指着沃克的左太阳穴。
At home in Tallahassee, Donna heard shouts and screams, then her husband saying, “This is it.” A single gunshot followed.
在塔拉哈西的家中，唐娜听到喊叫声和尖叫声，然后她的丈夫说：“就是这样。”随后一声枪响。
Delgado called out “Donna, call the police!” before somebody hung up the phone.
德尔加多喊道：“唐娜，报警！”在有人挂断电话之前。
Nash took over Walker’s lot after the shooting.
枪击事件发生后，纳什接管了沃克的土地。
He told me that, seven weeks after Walker’s death, a man named William Pinero approached him and asked for $10,000 on behalf of a soldier in John Gotti’s crew.
他告诉我，沃克去世七周后，一个名叫威廉·皮内罗的人找到他，代表约翰·戈蒂手下的一名士兵索要 10,000 美元。
Nash paid.
纳什付了钱。
In 1996, Delgado picked Pinero out of a lineup, and he was charged with Walker’s murder.
1996年，德尔加多将皮内罗从阵容中剔除，他被指控谋杀沃克。
Nash testified in court against him and provided key evidence.
纳什在法庭上作证指控他并提供了关键证据。
Amazingly, Pinero had written Nash a receipt for the extortion fee.
令人惊讶的是，皮内罗给纳什写了一张勒索费的收据。
He was sentenced to 25 years to life.
他被判处25年至无期徒刑。
Court records name Pinero’s accomplice as Michael Kealing, a career criminal notorious for sticking up fast-food joints.
法庭记录显示，皮内罗的同谋是迈克尔·基林 (Michael Kealing)，他是一名职业犯罪分子，因在快餐店打架而臭名昭著。
By the time he was identified, he was already serving a 70-year sentence for other crimes, and he was never prosecuted for the murder.
当他的身份被确认时，他已经因其他罪行被判 70 年徒刑，而且从未因谋杀罪被起诉。
Park Slope.
公园坡。
Photo: Lucia Buricelli Christmas morning 2021, I woke up sweating underneath three too many blankets in my childhood bed in New Jersey.
照片：Lucia Buricelli 2021 年圣诞节早晨，我在新泽西州儿时的床上醒来，床上盖着三层太多的毯子，浑身出汗。
My head was propped up by thick pillows and the shades were drawn tight.
我的头枕着厚厚的枕头，窗帘拉得很紧。
Two days earlier, I’d been in a car accident.
两天前，我遭遇了一场车祸。
Driving back from Greg’s stand late at night, I fell asleep at the wheel and slammed into the guardrail on the BQE.
深夜，我从格雷格的摊位开车回来，在方向盘上睡着了，撞上了 BQE 的护栏。
My head hit the windshield and the hood of the car folded like a wallet.
我的头撞到了挡风玻璃，汽车的引擎盖像钱包一样折叠起来。
That was the night I spent in the hospital, oozing sap and blood and listening warily for Bing Crosby.
那天晚上，我在医院里度过，一边流着汁液和鲜血，一边小心翼翼地倾听宾·克罗斯比的声音。
My brother picked me up and drove me to our family home, and I slept the entire length of the New Jersey Turnpike.
我哥哥接我并开车送我到我们家，我睡了整个新泽西州收费公路。
On Christmas Eve, my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents came over, as they have every year since before I was born.
平安夜，我的阿姨、叔叔、表兄弟姐妹和祖父母都过来了，自从我出生之前他们每年都会过来。
From my bed upstairs, I heard them filing in family by family, embracing, laughing, exchanging cakes and drinks and sweaters and small kitchen appliances, creating Christmas together.
在我楼上的床上，我听到他们一家一家地排队，拥抱、大笑、交换蛋糕、饮料、毛衣和小厨房用具，一起创造圣诞节。
I rubbed my head and rolled over, falling back asleep long before everyone had even arrived.
我揉了揉头，翻了个身，在大家都还没到之前就又睡着了。
The funny thing about Christmas trees is the funny thing about Christmas.
圣诞树的有趣之处就是圣诞节的有趣之处。
It isn’t always clear what’s authentic, what’s advertising, and what the difference is between tradition and going through the motions.
人们并不总是清楚什么是真实的，什么是广告，以及传统和走过场之间的区别是什么。
I know better than almost anybody that an evergreen isn’t necessarily the best representative of the true spirit of Christmas, whatever that might mean, but as I hobbled down the steps that morning and caught a glimpse of the tree my parents had picked out, driven home, and decorated, I couldn’t help but smile.
我比任何人都清楚，常青树不一定是圣诞节真正精神的最佳代表，无论这意味着什么，但那天早上，当我一瘸一拐地走下台阶，瞥见父母挑选的那棵树，开车回家并装饰时，我忍不住笑了。
And then I thought about Greg, who’s caught so perfectly between the poles of Christmas — just cutthroat enough to succeed in an unforgiving business but far too human to ever rule it.
然后我想到了格雷格，他完美地夹在圣诞节的两极之间——他的残酷足以在一个无情的行业中取得成功，但又太人性化，无法统治它。
In that sense, Greg is Christmas incarnate.
从这个意义上说，格雷格是圣诞节的化身。
If all goes well, every one of his trees is sold by December 23.
如果一切顺利，他的每一棵树都会在 12 月 23 日之前售出。
The 24th is spent packing up — unscrewing A-frames, unstringing lights, sweeping up pine needles.
24 号用来收拾行李——拧开 A 形框架，解开灯串，清理松针。
He spends the 25th not so much celebrating the holiday as recuperating from it.
25日，他与其说是在庆祝节日，不如说是在休养生息。
He does, however, take one tree home from the lot, usually a scrawny three-footer that nobody else wanted.
然而，他确实从停车场带了一棵树回家，通常是一棵瘦骨嶙峋的三英尺高的树，没人想要。
In typical conflicted fashion, Greg can’t bring himself to skip the tradition entirely.
在典型的冲突时尚中，格雷格无法让自己完全跳过传统。
But he also won’t save himself a tall, gleaming, symmetrical tree.
但他也不会为自己保留一棵高大、闪闪发光、对称的树。
In New York, those go for good money.
在纽约，这些东西可以赚很多钱。