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Subject: Part l The Worrier At Christmas Date: 12/20/2005 4:19:46 PM Central Standard Time From: JeanCoffey@webtv.net Reply To: iguana@list.serve.com Story When I was growing up I was a first class worrier. Now, that I am grown up, I am a worse worrier. I had two worries that were prominent when I was growing up. One was that I would be kidnapped like the Lindburgh Baby and the other was that we did not have a chimney for Sandy Claus to come down. I gave up worrying about being kidnapped when my mother said they would drop me at the first street light. Sandy Claus was not so easy to dismiss. I got my Big 5 pad of paper and my No. 2 pencil and made a survey. A lot about Sandy Claus was going on at East Balboa School. On the CZ Brats web page, there is a photo of that school. It was spread out in a straight line with posts holding up the straight line. Classrooms were 2 ea. Grade l, l ea. Grades 2 through 5. If you were promoted to Grade 6, you had to go all the way to the Monkey School by the Balboa Clubhouse. The Monkey School had 2 classrooms of Grade 6 monitored by Miss Creasey and Miss Grogan. But this story is not about Grade 6,or Grade 5, or even 4, 3, 2. It is about Grade l. My teacher was Miss Betty Ryan. All teachers were single as this was in the time of the Great Depression in the U.S. The other Grade l teacher, was Miss Drew. For Art and Music we exchanged teachers - Miss Drew taught Music with the great help of a pitch pipe and Miss Ryan taught Art. Sandy Claus showed up first in Art. He was everywhere. We drew countless pictures of him in his red suit, white beard and black boots with a BIG sack of toys, boys drew trains sticking out of the bag (with the exception of Ted Bailey who drew endless pictures of ships - he had a boat sticking out of the bag.) Girls drew dolls with blue eyes and long blonde hair although there was not a single girl in the class with blonde hair and blue eyes. (Note: When Ted Bailey grew up, he became a Panama Canal Pilot.) Miss Ryan pasted (no tape or magnets then) pictures of him always in the same clothes. Sometimes Mrs. Claus was there and sometimes she was not. I thought maybe she was taking care of her children and was very busy. Most of the time Sandy's helpers were working hard on toys for Sandy to bring us sometime during the night on Christmas Eve. That is, if he could find a chimney to come down; this requirement worried me a good deal. We always had a Christmas party in our classroom. In preparation for the party, we decorated plain white paper plates and construction paper place mats. My mother said this was insanitary, lesssanitay, nonsanitary, I got it - unsanitary. I hoped Sandy and Miss Ryan did not hear her say that as that might discourage the party plans. Party plans reminds me of cake and cake reminds me of Miss Ryan's masterpiece on Visitor's Day. All mothers and teachers wore hats in those days. These hats were kept on - makes sense to me - hat holders - slim stands with a shoe shaped top to hand the hat. We all made hat holders and then we made hats of every description - Ted's hat was a sailor hat. We put our hats on the stands on a freshly cleaned shelf and Miss Ryan put a celephone cover over the shelf to look like glass and a sign over the shelf that said French Bazar. (My mother said that presentation, "took the cake" even if Bazar was spelled wrong.) Miss Ryan was wrecking, excuse me - racking her brains to come up with something to top the hat idea that took the cake. Why not a toy store? No, that would dismiss Sandy Claus. Why not a toy shop? The very thing. The once more cleaned shelf got a display of toys as in a toy shop - but no celephane. Instead, a lovely border of holly leaves and red, red berries. Ted's leaves looked more like canoes, but so what? Unfortunately, all the dolls had long blonde hair and blue eyes and there were multi-colored trains plus one boat made by guess who? Ted, right. I was sure my mother would give this array a cake, too. We finished the toy shop well before Sandy was due to arrive so we made more pictures of him always in the same clothes. I thought Mrs. Sandy's maid must be tired of washing and ironing those same clothes all the time and I bet those black boots were hot for this climate. Whenever my mother does not want me to look like Ginger Rogers with puffed sleeves and long dresses, she says they are too hot for this "climate." I do not know where she is "climbing" to, but who cares? When it was hot in the classroom in the afternoon, Miss Ryan had us draw even more Sandy Clauses. (This was before a movie could be shown) |
| Subject: Part 2 The Worrier At Christmas
Date: 12/20/2005 3:53:27 PM Central Standard Time From: JeanCoffey@webtv.net Reply To: iguana@list.serve.com Story At this point in time, I was worrying about Christmas Trees. I knew where Christmas Trees came from - they came on one of our ships from the U.S. and then a commissary truck would deliver one to your door - one to a customer. Then your father would take that tree back to the commissary and exchange it for a better tree and several loose branches courtesy of the commissary truck employees who had been borrowed from the ice truck that delivered the ice every morning to your door and my father told the maid to give the workers a jigger of whiskey because it was cold on the ice truck. It seems that they expected the same courtesty when delivering trees also, but the maid was washing clothes and my mother saw no need to give a warm drink to Christmas Tree Deliverers, but they gave my Dad extra branches anyway. Cross off worrying about Christmas Trees. That brought my survey to chimneys. I had actually seen chimneys in person when we were on vacation in the what my mother calls the big PX in the sky - the U.S. They, however, did not look like the pictures in my books which always showed poor little chimney sweeps covered with soot cleaning chimneys for one penny per week. I consulted my Big 5 pad of paper and came to the conclusion that if the availability of chimneys could be solved, I would not have to worry about Sandy Claus having a chimney to come down. I thought and thought and then I remembered that somewhere, somehow in this hot climate, I had seen a really, truly chimney, but I could not remember exactly where. I racked my brains, and racked my brains and racked my brains and all at once, like stars falling from the sky, I remembered. One time when my mother was getting rid of me by making my Aunt Ethel take me with her to the bad side called Cristobal, I saw a chimney. Of course, it was all clear to me now. My Aunt Ethel took me to a place called Coco Solo Naval Station - pause here for breath - to a swimming pool at the Air Offcers Quarters. We were invited by the officers, my Aunt Ethel is very cute, to have fried chicken lunch in a large room called the Messy Hall - or, I guess, the Mess Hally, or something like that. On top of the roof where that eating place was there dwelled a really, truly, large brick red chimney with room enough for 3 Sandy Clauses to come down. I got out the stationary I got for last Christmas and wrote an express letter to Sandy Claus. I copied a map out of the telephone book and informed Sandy where this marvel was located and that it was on top of a roof of a very large room. I explained to Sandy that he could bring all the presents for little kids down that big chimney and then arrange them in the big room, transfer them to various houses through unlocked back doors. I made it clear that this was the only chimney that I knew of in this hot climate. What did he think? For one small minute I worried that thieves would come in through the unlocked doors, but then I realized that they had to be home sleeping waiting for Sandy Claus too so they would not be out stealing. Then I wrote, please reply by return mail (that is what my father writes on the Sears orders) folded my letter carefully, addressed the envelope, asked my mother for a stamp and asked her to mail it when she made her daily trip to the Commy tomorrow. Then I patiently, or maybe not so patiently, waited for my reply. My reply came 3 days later. Sandy uses the same writing paper my father uses on the big typewriter that costs a lot of money and cannot be wasted for making paper dolls or anything like that. I rushed to my room to read in private. The letter said, "Jean, that is a very good idea that you found a real chimney for me to come down. I will go and take a look at that chimney and if it is o.k., I will use it. Thanks for your help." Your friend, Santa Claus. P.S. The above letter was written in l929. If you go to Coco Solo today and look at the building that was the Air Officers' Quarters and then became the Coco Solo Elementary School, on the East end of the building on top of the roof, you will see a chimney large enough for 3 Sandy Clauses to come down, in case Santa Claus ever has to use it again. Frances The Holy One |
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Panama |
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