MOC6-Day-#26-The-Best-Santa-Ever

JOURNALING: THE BEST SANTA EVER* My twin sister and I grew up in a nice, middle-class neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio during the 1950's. It was a care-free innocent time in our country with a grandfatherly President who was a WWII hero. (Of course, he had a crook for a VP, but that's for another story.) There was a telephone - attached to the home; people delivered newspapers, dairy products, and baked goods to your door - and mail twice a day. Television was in its early adolescence if not infancy. We had three stations from which to choose IF we got up and went to the console set to change the channel. Color television had not really "caught on." But, Columbus had a locally-produced kids program that revealed a big secret about our city. Every December, the show did a segment with - wait for it - Santa Claus! And he was HERE in Columbus, making appearances at the pre-eminent local department store, Lazarus. Oh, I know, he had surrogates making appearances all around the country. But, the REAL Santa was here. You could just tell by the way he looked - jolly, white hair like spun sugar, rotund. My sister and I actually had our pictures taken with him one year and can verify he was the real deal! We could rest easy Christmas Eve knowing our home-boy would be delivering OUR presents FIRST! It was so comforting every Christmas season to see his smiling face and hear his booming laugh. He even had a reindeer named Rudolph who had a big red — wait a minute! Maybe I'm confusing the kids' show host with that reindeer. Hmm??!!?? He would use the name Gene Fullen during the "off" season, but we knew he was *
CREDITS: clipart; PHOTO: Flippo pic from web; KITS: Home by Jacque; Christmas Fun by Kristin Aagard; Night Before Christmas and Bigger on the Inside by Kate Hadfield; Believe 2 Dear Santa by Dawn Inskip; FONT: Of Wildflowers and Wings