Our weekly newspaper is available each week on Wednesday. This week is December 13, which gives us 12 days until Christmas. Now I’m sitting at my computer singing about a Partridge in a Pear Tree.
Next Wednesday it will be only five days until Christmas, which is very close to the time to start my Christmas shopping. I’m getting excited. This time of year, often brings back so many wonderful memories.
My dad had a country pick-up milk route when I was young. It was a 7-day a week job, so Santa stopped by our house very early. We were opening presents before 6 a.m. on Christmas morning, before dad headed out to deliver.
I remember going to my grandparents’ house later in the day for more presents and a Christmas meal. The house was always very full of uncles, aunts and lots of cousins.
I remember the year Santa brought me my first new bicycle. We lived on Madison Avenue, and I wasn’t allowed to ride my bicycle along the side of street. I could only ride up and down our driveway for several months until my folks felt I was skilled enough to expand my realm.
I really miss our old house on Madison Avenue. The years that it was known as The Longacre Bar and Grill, I could stop in and sit near the old fireplace that I once hung my stocking for Santa to fill with Christmas surprises.
In the late 1960s, our family made some very big changes. We sold our school buses to Perry Township and closed our auto repair business in Southport. I had accepted a new job in Southern California. I moved that June, and I knew that I was going to return to complete my Indiana National Guard commitment. That would allow me to be home for Thanksgiving.
I had booked my flight from Los Angles to Indianapolis and back months ahead of my travel dates. I enjoyed Thanksgiving at home with my friends and family. All the time, I had been thinking that I wasn’t going to be able to return in a month for Christmas.
As it got closer to Christmas, the holiday song that begins, “I’ll be home for Christmas” caused me to be a bit sad. I shouldn’t have worried, many of my co-workers knew I was alone and new to the area. I received several invites and had a very special Christmas.
A few years later, I was back in Indianapolis, married and had a son. It was so special to assist Santa and provide presents for Mark. I loved the family gathering for both of our families. My wife’s parents lived in Ohio.
It was special being a part of those family gatherings for the holidays. I accepted a new position in Michigan in 1977. Our Christmas holiday got a bit more complicated. We now had to schedule Christmas at our house, with my parents in Indianapolis and my wife’s parents in Ohio. Those were also special times.
Years later, when Mark was in college and I had moved back to Indianapolis, a special friend of mine gave me a Santa suit that her mother had made for her father. It was beautiful and fit nicely. For years, I was very busy during the Christmas season.
I visited neighbors, friends, family and places like schools and nursing homes. A few years ago, I had slowed down on those visits, and I contacted the daughter of my friend that gave me that special suit and offered to give it to her so it would be back in its original family.
Last week, our neighbor Alice inquired if I still possessed my Santa suit. I explained that it was now back with its original family. She said she was hosting her family to help get Christmas started. She asked if they found a Santa suit, would I once again visit her house as Santa.
They found a suit and later today Santa will make his visit. I’m really looking forward to this visit.
It is so special to look back on such wonderful Christmas memories.
Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools. He can be reached through email at fdshonk@aol.com.