Santer Clause Flashback
The other day for reasons I can not even begin to explain, I remembered an incident from my youth that I felt I should probably record somewhere. What better place than on one of my blogs?
When I was in second grade, my family lived on Lackland Air Force Base. To be specific, we lived on Fairchild Street. All I remember now, is that it was a row of white two-story houses. They were pretty nice. They had central heat and air, three bedrooms, and a covered carport in the back. I looked it up just now on Google Maps to see if it was street, avenue, or drive. I was shocked to see that the housing I lived in is long gone. They have replaced it with beautiful two-story duplexes, complete with driveways in front and fenced in individual backyards.
When my dad got orders to go to Vietnam, we had to move, obviously. Dad sold his horse, Booger Red, that we kept at the Lackland Air Force Base stables. Mom labored to clean the house. Back then, you had to pass a white glove inspection when you moved out of base housing. Some people hired cleaners to come in and do it. But, we were always on the poor side, so Mom did it herself. She probably didn’t have a whole lot to do, as my entire life, she kept a pretty damned clean house. You could eat off her floors!
Anyway, when it came time for us to actually move, the packers came and took all of our stuff that was supposed to be sent to storage. I don't know where the storage was. Maybe the Air Force has some central storage compound somewhere. My mom, my sister, and I, were going to live with my grandparents in New Jersey. That meant most of our stuff had to be stored somewhere until daddy came back from the war.
There was a small amount of stuff that was considered "hold baggage". That was stuff that didn’t get shipped until the last minute when you were almost ready to move. They were the things you used up to the last minute. Then, they would be taken and stored with the other stuff.
There was also stuff that you didn’t ship. That was the stuff that you just carried with you when you moved. The day they came to get the hold baggage, mom specifically told them not to take anything that was on the master bed. We had already packed our suitcases for the long Greyhound bus trip to New Jersey. Dad was flying out of Lackland a few days later to head to Vietnam.
For whatever reason there might have been, all of our stuff that was supposed to go with us ended up going with the hold baggage! We didn’t have any changes of clothes, toiletries, or most importantly stuffed animals. In my grown-up mind, it seems like they could’ve just called somebody and gotten it back, but that was before cell phones, etc. once the truck left to go where it was going, it was too late to get anything.
Patti and I were absolutely freaked out by the loss of our beloved stuffed animals. I don’t remember what Patti had at the time, but I had a little black and white teddy bear. It’s name for some crazy reason was Darly Darling. I don’t know if I named it. God, I hope not. Maybe it was a character name from somewhere.
My parents decided to take us to a store on Fredericksburg Road to get some clothes and new stuffed animals for the trip. I really don’t know for sure what store it was, but I want to say it was Fedmart. I do remember it was on Fredericksburg road inside of 410. I should say that 410 was a very new highway. In fact, it started at Marbach Road. At that time, it didn't go any farther. The only things on 410 back then were the monkey cages at the research institute and the newly built, ultra-modern looking, Oliver Wendell Holmes High School, until you got to Fredericksburg where Wonderland Mall was. Remember, this was probably some thing like 1965.
Oh, snap! Another blast from the past. There was something wrong with the construction of the Fredericksburg exit off of 410. As you went over it, you somehow became airborne for a second or two. It made your stomach drop just like the start of a roller coaster. Daddy called it the Boom Hill and would speed up for the full effect. I absolutely loved it!
Well back to the shopping. I also don’t remember what Patti got for her new stuffed animal. But, I got a little stuffed Santa Claus with a plastic face. I guess we were moving sometime close to Christmas. My parents tried to talk me out of it, but I fell in love the minute I saw it. Some old lady with a heavy Texas accent said, "Look at that sweet little boy with his Santer Clause!" That name stuck, and Santer was my favorite stuffed animal for a few years.
Once we got to New Jersey, Grandpop frequently took us to the boardwalk. He was pretty good at playing a lot of the games. After all, he ran some of them when he was a young man. He won lots of stuffed animals for Patti and me. At one time, I think we had close to 10 each. They just about crowded us out of bed. Besides Santer, I remember that I had a huge penguin (Penny), a six foot long snake (Milty), and a homemade bean bag teddy bear (Teddy). There were others, but they are missing from my mind's memory banks. It is funny that I can't remember any of Patti's at all.
We stayed in a room of the Sea Lure Motel, my grand parent's motel which Grandpop had built to give Grandmom something to do. He was the owner of the Shore Block Company and had provided the cinder blocks for almost every building built in the Somer's Point area in the 1950's through the 1970's. The motel was painted bright pink and had a huge mermaid hanging on the wall by the entrance. We stayed downstairs in room 6 during the off season, and upstairs in room 12 during the summer. Both rooms were identical. They had two double beds and a pink-tiled bathroom. After, Grandpop built the extension at the back end that had an apartment for Grandmom and him, as well as four tiny apartments to rent out, we moved upstairs to room 14. It was a bigger room with a kitchenette and full bathroom with a tub. That was where Grandmom and Grandpop lived until her heart condition got worse and the doctor did not want her climbing stairs.
Back to the stuffed animals, the whole point of this rambling. At night, before we fell asleep, we used to have this imaginary world that brought each of those stuffed animals to life. Patti and I would put them through all kinds of imagined illnesses, tragedies, and exciting life events until we heard Mom's key in the door. Suddenly, those stuffed animals turned back into lifeless toys, and Patti and I feigned sleep until we finally did succumb to slumber.
This is not my Santer. It is the same kind that I had, though. I found it with a Google search.