Betty Jane is my mother-in-law. I asked her for her earliest Santa memory.
My first encounter with Santa was in the basement of our church when I was in second or third grade. We were having one of those little Sunday school shows, where you sang those little Sunday school songs and everything. Nobody ever expected Santa Claus. Even when I look back I’m surprised, because Santa Claus is almost a verboten in our church. They don’t even talk about him — I have to be careful what card I send to my minister, that kind of thing.
There was a small stage in the basement, and our parents were there, and we were all just sitting in our seats when the Sunday school director came up and said, I have one more surprise for everybody. And here Santa Claus came bounding out onto the stage, waving and ho-hoing and everything. And the kids, we just all went crazy, because we never expected him. We all got in a long line waiting to get up on the stage and talk to him. We were laughing and giggling, jumping up and down and squealing — it was so much wilder than you would have at a department store, because it was such a surprise and in church, it felt kind of forbidden. It was him he was up there and we just couldn’t believe it. We kept saying to each other, It’s him! It’s him! It’s him! and by the time we got up on stage, it changed to It’s you! It’s you! and he handed out little presents to everybody.
I remember looking around for my mother, looking for direction on how I should behave during all this, but she was just laughing at having a good time, so I guess I was allowed to be rambunctious.
Also, my mom used to buy us presents that we could wrap up for my dad. I look back on this with some shame, but she always picked out a carton of Lucky Strikes. And I would wrap up this carton of Lucky Strikes for him, and he always acted real surprised that he got it. He told me many years later that usually by the time he opened it, he said, Bets, I snuck in there and probably the carton was half gone by the time Christmas rolled around. Because he didn’t see going to the store and buying more cigarettes when he knew he had a stash already under the tree.