CHRISTMASTIME... Ho Ho Ho? (Part 102a)

Elle got a call to teach in the middle of the week. Because the calls were so few and far between Elle wasn’t as judicious about being prepared for when a call did come in. As I described in an earlier post it was panic time as so much had to be accomplished in a very short period of time. Elle’s call to her mother was usually short and sweet and then she’d rush down the hall to take her shower so her hair would be dry by the time she left for school. However, on this morning she was still on the phone when I went looking for her. I didn’t get the gist of the conversation and when she hung up I tried to ask who she’d been talking to but she just blew by me down the hall. What followed was chaos but we all survived and weren’t too late in leaving.

That night I asked Elle who she’d been talking to and when she said it was Karen my heart dropped and I had to ask why. I’d vowed to myself not to bring her name up for fear that my ogling of her fanny on Sunday would come up. You have to know that I was relieved when she told me that the call had to do with school. Karen was writing a paper for a school project and, because she liked working with little kids and knew Elle was a teacher, had asked Elle to allow her to observe her for a day. That’s what had taken Elle so long when she went to deliver Karen home on Sunday. The relief on my face was so obvious that Elle asked me if I was OK. I was!

We’d been very careful with the kids as far as exposure to the Christmas hype and toys were concerned. They didn’t watch much TV and, back in those days, there wasn’t the endless “push” towards marketing toys to them even when they did. Up until Jean started kindergarten they’d been insulated from wanting a ton of toys. Once she started getting invites to visit her classmates we started hearing some requests for the same toys they had. Santa Claus was someone they only read about in books as we’d not yet taken them for a visit to see him. This year Jean came home one day with the exciting news that some of her classmates had actually seen Santa. That meant we had to let her make a visit to see him or she’d be out of step with her more worldly classmates.

Our town had three small local banks and one large regional one. Of course the regional bank, because of it’s size, dominated the “landscape” in just about everything. The building that housed them was quite impressive and when you went inside you were in a small rotunda highlighted by an immense chandelier hanging from the domed ceiling. I had our checking account there because it had been the most convenient when I worked for the county. I’d observed their Christmas display a number of times in the past and the center of it was a very ornamental throne for Santa to sit on. Elle had never seen it so I suggested that we take the girls there to meet Santa. Saturday was the best time for the two of us so that became the “plan”.

Backing up a bit, my Christmas experience at work only added to what was becoming a joke as far as a meaningful job went. Most of the villages put up their seasonal decorations right after Thanksgiving and so did the retail stores. Not so at the bank. When there was no outward signs of the season being displayed inside our out by the end of the first week in December I made the mistake of asking why. All I can clearly remember was that I got more than one answer and that none of them made much sense. Basically, it went back to WWII when a lot a sacrifices were being made for the war effort and the bank decided not to observe Christmas in the typical way with lights and decorations. From that time on they made donations to various local charitable organizations in the amount of what would’ve been expended for the decorations. What made absolutely no sense at all was that the Board wouldn’t even let the employees, using their own money and/or decorations, do any decorating. With bright colors and bright lights all around except in and around the bank, it’s innate dullness was only exacerbated. I overheard one customer tell Inez that walking into the building was like walking into a mausoleum. I could only smile.

Banks were not open on Saturdays back in those days but the bank with the Santa did on the last Saturday before Christmas. They were open from noon until 5pm just for kids to see Santa and, as you can imagine, the place was packed. Elle couldn’t get Karen (or anyone she trusted) to care for the baby so we all showed up. I have to admit that the Santa was the most realistic one I’d ever seen. It took almost an hour for our older kids to finally get to sit on his lap. Anne, our four year old, was so shy she wouldn’t look at him let alone tell him what she wanted for Christmas. I remember Jean being in total awe of him but don’t really know if she spoke to him.

It was fairly warm for the middle of December and Elle suggested that we walk around downtown and look at the decorations and in the store windows. We both agreed that we weren’t going to go as far as the toy store as we’d already purchased the girls gifts but we would go look at the garden in front of my grandfather’s house. One of the stores we walked past was the one with nice ladies clothing.  In the window was a brightly colored ladies long sleeve knit shirt. Elle’s eyes locked in on it and she wanted it... badly. However, there was a little tent card next to it with the price. It was over $20 and way out of line as far as I was concerned. Elle made a plea for it but I reminded her that she already had her present; the new sewing machine. There wasn’t anything she could say but it was obvious she wasn’t happy.

To be continued...