Christmas, 1956

There was a small Supervalu store in St Cloud in the 50s, the anchor store of the Miller Shopping Center on West Division St.  They had a small collection of kiddie rides in the parking lot, intended to keep kids busy while moms shopped.  A cool idea, but we rarely had the extra nickels required to ride the pink ferris wheel or the merry go round.  In fact, those rides were never busy in all the years I watched...lol

Anyway, in early December that year, we heard mom and dad mentioning pictures on Santa's lap and a bunch of German words, and a laugh.  What was that all about?  Huh--grownup talk, didn't concern us.

Then, one Saturday, DAD wanted to take us to Supervalu.   This never happened.

 When we got to the store, Marion and Kathy ran ahead, while Lois tried to keep them close, and dad quickly told me that Santa was his friend Gibbs Kelzenberg, and that when we got in there, I should reach under his wig and pull the small hairs on his neck!!  Wow, this appealed to me in so many ways, but it made me a little nervous, too--how could he be sure this wasn't the REAL Santa?  

The event was so low-key that dad had to ask where the pictures were being taken.  He was directed to the back corner, where they'd cleaned out a small room in produce.  It had grey cement  walls, and NO holiday decorations at all--just lights and a camera on  tripods, a photographer, and Santa, on a folding chair.  There was no line, either.
As we were herded into the room, I realized they were "talking over our heads", with dad being funny, and Gibbs trying desperately to remember our names...but mostly, we were too excited to care--this was our own PICTURE WITH SANTA CLAUS!  As the shutter clicked, I was wishing my hand was colder as I reached for small hairs, and as you see--Gibbs was keeping a pretty good straight face.
Good times.