* 43 Herald & Lantern 19 December '84 —

The Event of Christmas •»

'Then You Get Old and It Just Be Another Day

By JOHN DONOHIJE Except in the confines of my own family, where confusion made sense when I was small, Christmas remains largely undocumented, based on legend. In modern times, its history is recorded on the business pages in retail sales. The 20th Century also gives us theological experts who claim there is no evidence that St. Nicholas ever existed. He was merely German folklore, they say. What then, of 2,000 years YV lull U|CU, Ul t,«vv

ago? That first Christmas. How much is legend, how much is fact? And who was there to say? Not believe in Christmas? Scrooge did that, and in fact, he still lives, in a thousand places, even though he never existed. The event of Christmas conjures up all a6rts of inspirational stores regarding the triumph of the human spirit, ftit for many people, it can be the loneliest time o/\be year. THE OLD WOM had a hump on her back that must have weighed 30 pounds by itself. She didn't walk; she dragged herself along, leaning on two canes. Yet, she worked that Christmas eve, as she had all the others before, because to her it wasn't work. It was the only family she really had, now. There was a grown son she rarely heard from. There were grandchildren, too, but as usual around the holidays, the old woman was alone. They were too busy getting ready for Christmas. She worked as a day housekeeper for a wealthy couple who owned a French restaurant on the Main Line. They were fastidious in their own tastes to the point of snobbery, which didn't seem to bother the old woman. "They ain't no different from anybody else," she said. "Mostly, the people that has money don't know what to do with it a! .er they got it, and they's afraid somebo8y's gonna come along and take it all away from them." IT WAS A 20-MINUTE ride from her employer's home in Gladwyne, down twisting country roads at night in all kinds of weather, to the battered part of Ardmore where she lived. Yule Party AVALON — The annual Recreation Department children's Christmas party will be held 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22. Highlights of this event are making Christmas cards, tree decorations, and a visit from Santa. Parents are urged to bring preschoolers through fourth grades to the Avalon Community Hall, 30th and Avalon Summer Avenues.

The old woman had worked years after she should have retired. Just getting in and out of the taxi was a struggle, but there was rent to pay on the tiny, dark apartment where she lived alone, and welfare never was her style. Social Security? There is none for many like her who work for day wages all their lives, with no deductions taken out. They are not considered to have regular employers, or even regular jobs. "Well, are you all ready for Christmas?" she asked

the cab driver this night, not waiting for an answer. Then she laughed loudly at her own joke. "I know you can't be ready if you be workin' on Christmas eve. Anybody who got to work tonight must be workin' for ol' Scrooge, and dat man you work for, I know he be a Scrooge." THE OLD WOMAN howled and chortled. "Dat man, he don't believe in no Christmas, unless Santy Claus fill his stocking with money." It was true. The old man who owned the cab company also owned a gas station, and between the two of them, he had become a millionaire. He had bought common stock during the Depression when everyone else was selling at whatever price they could get. And he liked to gloat about it, 50 years later. He was a self-made Scrooge who loved money. A dollar bill could make his face light up, but little else. He treated his help like so much necessary riff-raff, knowing there was plenty more where they came from. And if they had to work on Christmas eve and Christmas day, so what? He paid them nothing extra, not a nickel, not even a thank you, and he worked them like dogs. On paydays, it was not uncommon for his drivers to be chiseled out of part of their earnings through the boss' bookkeeping errors. Scrooge lived, even though he never existed. WHEN THE OLD woman's laughter had subsided, she fell silent for a long moment, then turned serious. ''I always liked Christmas when I was a young girl," she said. "Oh, we had so much fun. But when you get old, and you be all by yourself, and then it just be another day. Still, it ain't nothin' to feel sorry about, 'cause I had my Chris tmases, and I be glad for that. 'J The old woman lapsed into silence again, then she said, "my boy, he be a wonderful boy. He all growed now and moved away with a family of his own. He be very good to his wife and children, and dat be all you can ask of a son. I be real proud of him." T^Aaxi rumbled on to AdHore, carrying the i hunch-backed woman home. I "Oh, me oh my. Lord, I done worked a full day and

half the night this Christmas eve. And dat woman, she be bitchy the whole time. I don't know what be into her, maybe just out of sorts, I guess, like everybody be now and then." THE TAXI. pulled onto the old woman's street, and she fell silent again for another long moment. "My boy, he be so ftinny at Christmastime when he be growin' up. I remember one year, you "know, when they reach dat age when they ain't sure about Santy Claus no more?

"Well, my boy, he keep lookin' up the chimney, then he "say . 'ain't no Santy Claus gonna fit down dat chimney unless he be a very skinny Santy Claus.' " The old woman pulled herself out of the taxi, but before she dragged herself on her two canes to her apartment, she said; "I think it gonna be a nice Christmas, anyhow. Ain't no reason why not. No reason a t all." (ED. NOTE: HeraldLantern reporter Donohue lives in Avalon Manor.)

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