A Letter That Never Made It to Santa
In
1955 WKPT radio announced that the station would be reading letters to Santa
over the air and then forwarding them on to Santa at his North Pole address.
This
was very exciting to those of us in lementary school. In the past we kids had
no surefire method to get our requests straight to the man with all the toys. Oh,
sure we knew that the post office was set to deliver them. There were stories
every year about how the post office took on extra workers just to handle all
the mail to the North Pole.
But
those stories were always a little fishy.
How
did you know that those workers didn’t just throw the letters away? How would a
kid know Santa did get his letter unless maybe he got a lot of stuff he didn’t
ask for and didn’t want, like handkerchiefs and underwear and that sort of
stuff.
But
to have your letter to Santa read over the airwaves, well, that was a cinch
that Santa would know what you wanted.
I
mean everybody in Kingsport listened to WKPT. They had the Lone Ranger and
Sleepy Joe and the Five O’Clock Shadow. Surely Santa listened too.
So I
sat down and composed my letter:
“Dear
Santa
“I
am eight years old. For Christmas I want a Captain Space Solar Port, a Mandrake
the Magician Magic Set, and a sheriff office that is 5 ft. 2 in. high. I would
like a few surprizes also. I hope I am not asking too much.
“Love,
“Vincent
Staten Jr.
I
addressed the envelope carefully:
“Santa
Claus
“W.K.P.T.
“Kingsport,
Tenn.”
Then
I gave it to my dad to mail.
And
I waited.
Every
night at 6:30 I would turn on our radio and listen to the “Santa Claus” show,
which ran right before “Sleepy Joe.”
It
seemed like they read letters from every kid in my third grade class, every kid
at Johnson Elementary. Every night was like a Johnson roll call: Freddie,
Bruce, Janice, Larry, Mary, Mike, Marty, Richard, Don, Diane, Betty, Brenda.
But
no Vincent, never Vincent.
Frankly,
I was getting worried. This was in the days before text and before email. I
knew that once W.K.P.T. read my letter they would have to send it on to the
North Pole.
What
if it didn’t get there in time? What would I get from Santa? A crummy fruit
basket? A stupid belt?
I
asked my dad if there wasn’t something he could do, he seemed to know everybody
in town. He was manager of the Shoe Department at Penney’s then. Surely he knew
someone at W.K.P.T.
Get
my letter on, please, please.
He
said he’d see what he could do. Then he gave me hope: “Maybe they read it the
night we were at your Uncle Albert’s in Johnson City.”
Yes,
that had to be it. I had sent my letter in plenty of time.
They’d
read it that one night we were out of town.
I
slept better. Even on Christmas Eve.
And
I awoke on Christmas morning to find a Captain Space Solar Port under our tree.
And a Mandrake the Magician Magic Set. And a letter from Santa explaining that
he was out of the sheriff’s office and would try to bring it next Christmas.
Good
enough for me.
And
that made 1955 one of the merriest Christmases of my young life.
How
do I know all this, how do I remember exactly what I asked Santa for in 1955?
Well,
the other day I was cleaning out some of my father’s old files and an envelope
tumbled out.
It
was addressed:
“Santa
Claus
“W.K.P.T.
“Kingsport,
Tenn.”
And
there was a letter inside.
My
father had never mailed my letter.
But
somehow Santa got my Christmas wish after all.
The
next year I started marshalling my evidence in early December. From off-hand
references on sit-coms to variety show jokes, I had a brief prepared to present
to my mother: There was no Santa Claus. She and my father bought the presents,
put them under the tree, my father drank the milk and ate the cookies. She
wrote Santa’s letter to me – it was her unmistakable handwriting. Besides we
wouldn’t even build a fire in our fireplace. No fat man would have been able to
squeeze down it.
But
on the way to Airing My Grievances (long before Festivus), I had an Epiphany. A
Christmas Revelation: if I brought down the Santa Charade, I would be
forfeiting extra presents.
So I
ditched my presentation.
And Santa
arrived that Christmas. And the next. And the next. Until he arrived with a
knowing wink: I knew and they knew I knew but it still made for a wonderful
Christmas morning.
So
here I sit in my dotage…and I still believe.
The Kingsport Times began running Letters to Santa in December 1919:
SANTA
CLAUS GETS THREE LETTERS HERE
Times Receives Communications From Kingsport Children for
Christmas Gifts.
Santa
Claus has three letters addressed to him in care the Kingsport Times.
They were received yesterday and are signed by Wanda Massengill, "a little
girl 7 years old;" Waneta Massengill, "a little girl 5 years
old," and Carvel Massengill, "a little boy 3 years old.”
Santa
Claus, of course, is still at his toy factory in the Arctic, and the letters
have been sent to him, as will all communications addressed to him care of The
Times by the little boys and girls of this section. The last information
this office received from Santa was that he was hard at work preparing
Christmas gifts for the little boys and girls who have teen good, and that his
reindeers had got good and fat during the summer off a special shipment of
Greenland moss which had been sent to him in bales.
The
letters written to Santa by the Massengill children were as follows:
“Dear
Santa: I am a little girl 7 years old. I want you to bring me a doll. a doll
carriage, some candy, nuts and fruits. Yours truly,
"WANDA
MASSENGILL."
“Dear
Santa: I am a little girl 5 years old. I want a doll carriage, a set of dishes,
a little house, a table, candy, nuts and fruits. Don't forget papa and mamma.
Your little girl,
"WANETA
MASSENGILL.”
“Dear
Santa: I am a little boy 3 years old. I want a wagon, horn, a box of peanut
candy and fruits and nuts. Yours truly,
"CARVEL
MASSENGILL.”
The
newspaper still runs Letters to Santa
posted by Vince Staten @ 10:08 AM
0 comments
