Santa Remembered

This is a true story about me when I was almost three years old. I know it is hard to believe that I can remember something that long ago when I can't find what I had yesterday. This was such a traumatic thing that I didn't like Santa Claus for a long time. Santa always came to our house a few days before Christmas to see how we were acting and to be sure he had our wants on his list. We lived in a very rural area and electricity had not even came to the area. The year was 1947, so for all you young people, I have lived in a way that you cannot imagine. I remember my mother standing at the cabinet washing the supper dishes. We did not have water in the house either. My dad was in the barn doing the evening milking. This is what happened.


Santa Remembered

When I was nearly three years old
And christmas time was near,
My folks told me that Santa Claus
Would very soon appear.

I really didn't know too much
About this jolly old Christmas Elf.
But they told me he would bring some toys
For sister Patty and myself.

I wanted a new red wagon
And I tried to be ever so good
So 'Clanty Laus' would stop for a visit
In the Harmon Neighborhood.

He would come by and check us out early,
So much to my sisters delight,
One evening, he tapped on the window
And I never had such a fright.

This hairy, red face in the window
Was Santa--who I'd heard all about
"Go away and where is my daddy?"
I started to cry and to shout.

"Your daddy, "old Clanty Laus told me,
Is down in the barn milking cows,
I stopped for a quick visit with him
and he sent me up here to the house."

Now who was this guy in this red suit?
The one with the white flowing hair.
This surely isn't dear 'Clanty Laus',
Giving me such a bad scare.

Mamma wanted me to go and talk to him,
Patty thinks he's a jolly nice man.
I think that he is really quite scary
And would he leave just as fast as he can?

Ole 'Clanty Laus tried to be friendly
And said he thought he could bring
The toys that each of us wanted,
Then my sister started to sing.

The songs that we all sing at Christmas
Of Santa and the Babe' in the hay.
Santa asked me to sing along with her
I told him to "Just Go Away".

Then we all heard the reindeer start pawing
So 'Clanty Laus said "I must run".
And then as he left, Daddy came to the house
And said, "Gee, I missed all of the fun."

I can still see all of this in my mind today. Later, I sit on Santa's lap at the one room Harmon School. The next year, when Santa Came for his visit, I was prepared.