I SAW DADDY HIDING SANTA
You could feel Christmas in the air. Short cool days with long nights of star filled skies and the smell of wood fires in the air. The days up to the last day of school before the Christmas break were torture. Who could listen or pay attention to the teacher as she droned on and on about the history of the Roman empire or short cut techniques for solving long division problems? The only good thing about the school day was the Christmas color sheets, making decorations for the school room Christmas tree, and practicing for the school Christmas program.
We drew names in our room at school to exchange gifts at the party on the last day of class. This meant a trip to the local five and dime store to pick out a gift-but you couldn’t spend more than a dollar. How exciting to pour over the toys, games, and books lined down the aisle of the store. The trick was to pick out something that everyone really wanted and hope that every other gift was not the same thing. This became a difficult chore when you stop to realize that there is only one five and dime store in town and all the other kids in school shopped in the same store. You could always pick out candy since we all loved and appreciated candy. It could take forever to select just the right gift and then you had to wrap it. The name exchange was a big secret, so you had to be very careful at recess to not divulge your name. Since the girls and boys drew names within their groups exclusively, this left a small number of possibilities to have your name. Usually by the time the party rolled around, the secret was out and we all knew who had our name. What is it about secrets and girls that we don’t think we can bear to not know?
Every morning I plodded down the long shell covered rutted dirt drive to wait for the school bus. My breathe left a cloud of vapor as I strolled to the narrow paved road in front of the house. There I stood dreaming of Santa and treasures to come as the yellow ferry crept up the road. The early days of December dragged by and the long anticipated last day of school finally arrived. We spent the day exchanging gifts, eating party food and presenting our songs to the school assembly. Finally the day was over and we were off to the buses. The day was capped off with Mr. Bill, the bus driver, giving each rider an orange when they got off the bus. The real magic of Christmas was finally closing in.
I had spent hours of many days going through “The Christmas Wish book”. I made a list and remade a list, carefully picking just what every girl would want. I really liked a lot of the boys’ games including rockets that really lifted off, chemistry sets, and erector sets. The girls in comparison had boring things like dolls, tea sets, and batons. I knew Santa expected me to order the standard girl type toys, but oh how I wanted some of those boys’ toys. After I made the list a couple of dozen times, I handed it over to Momma to mail to Santa for me. Now all that remained was the wait.
Once school was over and there was about a week until Christmas, the anticipation became unbearable. We were wild and Momma was working overtime trying to keep us calm and acting like ladies and gentlemen. We often would go by Daddy’s office during this final week. The secretary would mysteriously tell us we could not go to the back vault. Daddy’s office was the old town bank and had a walk in vault in the back of it. We loved playing there when we were at the office, but all of a sudden it was off limits.
Living in Louisiana, we were always able to go outside and play and that is just what we did to pass the time away. The great outdoors were our playground and Momma’s salvation from our noise and fighting. We spent hours running, chasing, fighting, and idling the time away.
The day before Christmas Uncle Joe & Aunt Lora were coming to spend Christmas with us. It was a long drive, but they always brought us a gift and treated us as if we were their grandchildren. It was always fun and times were good when they visited. Momma would be in her best mood and Daddy was charming as always. Tomorrow would be Christmas and Santa would arrive. I could feel the flush of excitement and the aura of nervous anticipation as the night finally arrived.
We had our Christmas Eve dinner and the adults were trying to visit. Momma sent us out of the room to keep the noise and confusion down. For some reason we decided to play chase around the house. Circling and circling, running as fast as our feet could take us. I ran around the corner of the house and toward the carport. Daddy’s car was parked just out of the carport and I ran behind the back of it trying to avoid being caught. As I slipped around the back of the station wagon, something caught my eye. I looked back and I saw the distinct handle bars of a bicycle. WHAT DID THIS MEAN? I quickly ran into the house in fear of being in trouble for being where I was not supposed to be. We were sent to bed after putting out Christmas candy and milk for Santa. I could not get the sight of what I had seen out of my mind, but I went to bed knowing there had to be an explanation.
The next morning we woke up bright and early to see what Santa had brought. To my surprise, there was a bicycle under the tree. What had I discovered? What did this mean? The sad thing is that I realized the magic of my childhood had slipped away. What had I done? Why had I gone outdoors? Everything was fitting together, but I didn’t like what I had learned. The magic of Santa had vanished with a simple game of chase.
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