Monday, December 22, 2008
Santa has big role in holiday memories
Tom Angleberger
The New River Valley-based reporter answers your questions Mondays in his column, What's on Your Mind?
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This week, readers, we'll take a trip into Christmas past.
In truth we could spend the next couple of months on the trip. Yes, I received that many responses from readers with memories to share.
You sent in stories about family traditions, cedar trees and bad-weather adventures. You remembered the giant lighted Santa of Raleigh Court and Larsen's Tree Farm, making fruitcake and opening presents early. Memories surfaced of church pageants, loving families and the generosity of a child.
Cutting these stories up and leaving some of the best out entirely makes me feel like the Grinch. But there's just no way to print them all.
So here in the paper we'll focus on a particular favorite: Santa. I've had to edit these carefully, however, to avoid mention of a certain subject. I believe you know what I mean.
"Old Santa Claus is a grand old man,
Comes every year to Pugh's toy land,
With his great big bag all full of toys,
For all his good little girls and boys!"
That little jingle came from reader John Bostian. He told me that WDBJ played it about 1940, and Santa would read letters on the radio.
"He never read mine," lamented Bostian.
Some readers remembered meeting Santa Claus in person at Pugh's department store.
"I don't remember anything about the trip into town from our home on U.S. 220 a few miles north of the Franklin County line," wrote Virgil Cook. "My only memory is sitting on Santa's lap and my older brother prompting me to 'Tell Santa Claus what you want him to bring you.' What a thrill it was to hear that same voice that I regularly heard on the radio speaking reassuring words to me."
Seeing Santa was just part of a trip to downtown Roanoke at Christmas:
"After I saw Santa we would get in the car and drive to Hotel Roanoke to have our picture made in front of the biggest Christmas tree that I had ever seen," wrote Betty Poff. "As I grew older, my trips to see Santa became a sort of mother-daughter outing. We would dress up in our Sunday best complete with white gloves (in those days you never wore pants downtown) and go to the Miller & Rhoads tea room for tea and the most delicious almond cookies that I had ever tasted."
"Mom and I would ride the bus and meet my dad, who walked over from the N&W offices to meet us for dinner at the S&W Cafeteria," recalled Carolyn Nelson. "I would have on my red or green dress with lots of slips to make it look poofy because I would soon see Santa. After walking past the Planter's Peanut store, which was next door to the American Theatre, and smelling the wonderful smells that emitted from that storefront, and perhaps buying a bag of fresh roasted peanuts, we would stroll by the Jennings-Shepherd Toy Store. Finally, we would go to Miller & Rhoads, where ... Santa would hear my wish list."
"Shivering in the cold and dodging snowflakes, we would make our way into the heart of the city looking for warmth in each store we went in. And wonderful stores they were, each and every one," recalled Jimmy Lisle. "Back then, Santa's arrival at each store was a big to-do. I seem to remember the one at Heironimus the best. Maybe it was because they had a display of my favorite trains that I wanted for Christmas."
Beginning in the late '50s, Santa's arrival became especially memorable to some readers.
"In '57 or '58 the Sears Town Shopping Center was opened and a new Roanoke tradition began," wrote David Walrond. "On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Santa landed on the roof of the Sears store in a helicopter. The No. 10 Fire Station ... provided one of their ladder trucks for Santa to descend to the parking lot.
"We lived so near the Sears store that later I remember watching Santa set down on the rooftop from the window in my bedroom."
Susan Kidd Fleming didn't have a view from her window, but her uncle would drive the kids from Mount Pleasant into town to see Santa's helicopter.
"To me it was the official start of the Christmas holiday. Nothing else could compare to it. I remember this because we lost that uncle recently, and I told that story of him and four little kids in his pickup truck (sans seat belts) waiting in the cold for Santa to arrive via helicopter. We are all in our 40s now, but every one of us said it was the most exciting thing about Christmas for them, too."
And then, of course, Santa set up shop at the mall.
"When I was very young ... my parents thought it would be fun to take me to visit Santa at the mall," wrote Amanda DeHaven. "Back then the mall was Crossroads Mall. I remember them lifting me over a crowd of other children and then -- me promptly screaming my head off! I was so traumatized, I did not sit on Santa's lap until I was 12 at Towers Mall."
After Christmas, it'll be back to questions and, hopefully, answers. If you've got a question on your mind, e-mail it to woym@roanoke.com or leave it on my voice mail at 777-6476 (please be sure to speak clearly and spell your name). I'll need your name, location and phone number or e-mail address.
Look for Tom Angleberger's column on Mondays.
