Warning: Santa Spoiler Alert!
On the way to Randy's aunt's funeral last spring, we passed this house. Randy slowed just a bit and said, "That's where we used to live." It's still the same color as it was when he lived there. His family had a dairy farm, but that's long gone now. He was 11 years old when his family moved from this house - the same age as Tanner is now. Then, Randy told me a story about that house:
"My dad worked at a sugar factory; he was one of their maintenance men. We had decided to have Christmas before Dad left for work Christmas day. Kevin, Kyle, and I decided to milk cows at 3:00 in the morning so that Dad could sleep longer and we'd have Christmas together before he went to work.
We were just about done with chores. We only had three or four cows left when Kevin and Kyle sent me back to the house. The only problem was I couldn't get in; the door was locked. I ran back to the barn and told Kevin and Kyle. The didn't believe me, but Kyle went back to the house with me anyway. This time, the door wasn't locked, so my brothers were obviously right all along. I went back to bed and as I lay there, I heard the wind chimes that hung outside the front door. I knew for certain that Santa was there; he'd hit his head on the chimes. For a long time afterwards, I knew there was a Santa."
Come to find out when Randy came in from the barn the first time, his mom - who had been up doing Santa business - was getting ready to unlock the door and saw him coming. She just sat on the step until Randy ran back to the barn, and then she unlocked the door. After Randy was back in bed, his mom and dad were getting the presents out. They had hid them all on the front porch and as they were coming in or out, one of them hit their head on those chimes.
I realize that the front porch in the picture above is exposed to the elements. Randy said it used to be enclosed.
I love this story that he remembers about Christmas. In fact, his mother remembers it just as well, and I'd heard the story many times before we drove past the house. Hopefully, some of you have memories just as vivid of when you knew there was a Santa.
1 comment:
We too milked cows when I was little. Actually, we milked them when I was big too. I remember Christmas morning getting up early to milk before Santa could come. I remember wondering how he knew we had cows and would show up later at our place.
Now as an old fat guy I love to play santa for parties, families, schools and any other reason. The kid in all of us never really leaves. KM
Post a Comment