Grugger’s Way

My First Doubts About Ol’ Santa

My very earliest memory of Christmas morning was when I was four years old and I, alone, at the earliest possible time of the morning, came upon that Christmas tree, all aglow in a dark room, with a toy TRAIN all set up, with the tracks encircling the tree!  The big black engine, the coal car, the oil tanker, the box car, the flat bed, and the red caboose!    This was perhaps the best Christmas present I ever received!  I still have it, 57 years later!  I wonder if my Mother will be surprised about that?  I’ve kept it all these years.

And there was another reason, perhaps the main reason, that I recall that particular Christmas:  When it came time to put away the train, my Dad went to the closet and brought down the box that the train came packed in.  Each of the cars had its own compartmented space, and all the tracks fit perfectly, even the curved ones…so it HAD to be the box for the train set…But…why would Santa need a box for the train set? And why would he put the box in our closet?

And then I remember asking myself, “How did Dad know it was up there on the top shelf in the closet?”  Come to think of it, I may have asked that question out loud…perhaps my Mom will remember that.  Because now I think I remember Dad or Mom saying that he had seen the box when he went to the closet for something else that morning.

But….I wasn’t sure what to think…but to be safe I went along with that story…I was FOUR!  I didn’t want the train set to disappear or something!  After all, we weren’t even allowed to actually SEE Santa when he brought presents!  That would have spoiled the magic.

I do remember something else from that Christmas:  On Christmas Eve, Dad told me that Santa would use our front door, since we didn’t have a fireplace and chimney.  That was a relief!

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