A Pickle, a Pig and a Frog

Lakewood's Bill Hixson has a tradition all his own

A pickle, a pig and a frog — some holiday traditions really do need to continue.

Bill Hixson slyly placed an ornament of each aforementioned object onto Christmas trees in the White House Blue Room every season for more than 20 consecutive years.

The pickle, of course, for good luck, pork for prosperity and the frog for forward motion.

“Nobody knew I was doing it,” said Hixson, who began offering his holiday-decorating talents to the folks in Washington during the Ronald Reagan era. “I’d wait till there was nobody in the room, take them out of my pocket and put them on the tree.”

Hixson’s private tradition lasted through the Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies.

Then came 2009.

Hixson’s Washington contact, a former student and White House decorator, retired five months into the Barack Obama era.

Subsequently, he was not invited to help with the annual White House decorating festivities. And consequently, he believes his absence had a profound impact on the country.

“I did not put on a pickle, a pig or a frog on the Blue Room Tree,” Hixson said of the snapped tradition. “Therefore, the economy tanked. There was no forward motion and no prosperity and no good luck.

“And whose fault was it? It was my fault for not making sure they had a pickle, a pig and a frog.”

Washington apparently came to the same conclusion.

Hixson was called back in 2010 and the tradition started again.

Very good condition