Christmas with Santa in Greencastle

Editor’s Note: Anita McEnulty is a lifelong Putnam County resident and the daughter of longtime local columnist David Barr.

Growing up in Greencastle at Christmas time was one of my most favorable memories. I was very blessed to have grown up in a Christian family who raised us to know the true meaning of Christmas, but also the meaning of Santa Claus through a child’s eyes.

I am not sure at just what age I was when I first believed in Santa. Being the youngest of four, I am sure it was quite difficult for my family at Christmas time.

As for gifts I am not sure if I actually remember what I received as a young child but I am sure, from photos, it was the usual doll baby for my sister and I and probably a football and basketball for my older brothers. Along with some books and candy.

Christmas time in Greencastle was always pretty special. G. C. Murphy’s Dime Store always had a Toyland with Santa upstairs over their store. J. C. Penney’s also had a Toyland in their basement. Each year was filled with excitement to be able to go and look at all of the pretty dolls.

Our own stockings always had to be hung up but we had no fireplace in which to hang them. If memory serves me correctly, I think we actually hung them on our small tree. Our father always took us to the back pasture of our neighbor, Bob Gould, where we cut down our own tree, and then we would drag it back up to our house. Then that evening mother would pop popcorn for us to string around our tree, along with a string of cranberries and our construction paper streamers that we made in school.

But Santa always found our stockings and would put an apple and an orange in each one. Each of us kids left Santa some of our home baked cookies and a glass of milk. Not sure what the reindeer ate because I do not remember ever leaving them any carrots.

The next and final thing we did before being rushed off to bed was to make sure the front door was unlocked. That was the only way Santa could get in.

As the years passed and Santa was no longer an actual visitor at our house, Christmas was still as exciting as ever. Part of our house was underground. Our living room and my parents’ bedroom was upstairs, divided by a stairwell. Not believing what brothers Eddie Wayne and Kenny told us about no Santa, we still had a hard time believing. They said if we sat at the bottom of the dark stairwell and were really quiet, we could see our mom and dad carrying presents from their bedroom to the living room, placing them around the tree.

And it was true.

Our mother made all of Mary Ruth’s and my clothes. So each year we would have that something special she had made. The year we both got “poodle skirts” still has a special memory. Of course she made all of our doll clothes. Prevo’s in Greencastle sold the Terri Lee dolls and they were very expensive. Mary Ruth and I both got Terri Lees one year and mother always had a beautiful wardrobe handmade for them. Of course ‘Barbie’ dolls were non-existent back then.

My sister and I both were pretty good snoopers — more than once. One year we had been snooping and found little our transistor radios in daddy’s file cabinet. And when our parents were gone to the grocery we would get them out and play them. I think mother spilled the beans one year and told that our little overnight suitcases were hidden over at our neighbors, Bob and Mary Gould’s, and she had forgotten to get them to put under our Christmas tree.

My father was a frugal man. On Christmas Eve he always came home late from work. We later found out that is when he did his main Christmas shopping as all of the stores had items discounted.

Our family belonged to the First Baptist Church on Spring Street. Both of my parents, David and Mary Barr, were very active members. Each Christmas my mother had the job of helping Santa Claus fill little brown bags with peanuts, hard Christmas candy, an apple and an orange. Santa Claus always came to First Baptist and always gave each of the children a little brown bag filled with the goodies. Being as there were so many children at our church for the Christmas program, Santa never had enough time to fill all of the bags himself. So my mother always was always his helper.

One year the Sunday school classes did a Christmas play. My mother played Mary. Even though I do not remember this I still have the picture of her and the others that were in the skit.

Christmas time was very special for me at the First Baptist Church. Rev. Dallas Rissler was the minister at the time. As we got a little older we were at the age where our young BYF (Baptist Youth Fellowship) group were able to come help decorate the sanctuary for Christmas. The baptismal was in the front left corner of our church. Each year, Rev. Rissler would put all of the beautiful blue lights on the tree with a big star on top. Then the BYF children could decorate it. I mention the baptismal because that is where this very huge live tree was placed. I do not remember if it was at Christmas Eve services or not but I can still hear Ike Strain in his beautiful tenor voice singing “O Holy Night.”

For several of my teenage years, a very close and longtime friend, Barbara Padgett Hines, and I would sing for the church Christmas plays. (I must stop here and tell you that Barbara and I started singing together in front of the sanctuary at around age 5. Our first song was “This Little Light Of Mine,” while we each held a candle as we sang. I do not remember if our teacher was Maybelle Rice or Mamie Leslie.)

As we grew older my sister and I both played the piano or organ for church, plus sang in the choir. For the Christmas Cantata each year many, many hours of practice went into it to make it “just perfect.”

I grew up south of Greencastle on State Road 43 (now U.S. 231) and even though the neighbor houses were not that close together we were close in friendship and love. One of our neighbors in particular I remember at holiday time. Maurice and Nell Kersey would have all of the surrounding neighbors over for punch and cookies. Of course, the punch was red for Christmas and I know my siblings, Eddie Wayne, Kenny, Mary Ruth and I, were warned not to spill a drop on Nell’s beautiful white carpet. At that time there were not that many neighbors. Roy and Pauline Ikamire and family, Bob and Mary Gould and Jim and Flossie McIntyre are a few of the ones that I can remember.

Nell had a huge baby grand piano (something we had never seen) in her living room and we all gathered around and sang Christmas carols. What a wonderful evening.

I attended Miller School, or Second Ward as it was sometimes called. Every year we performed in a Christmas program, mainly with the younger classes doing the singing. Each grade had our special songs that we practiced on for several weeks, each one of us wanting to make our parents proud of us at the program.

But the most important memory was of Handy’s Dairy. Handy’s gave each child in the elementary classes ice cream. This ice cream was not your ordinary ice cream, this was a special small square of ice cream and had a Christmas tree or Santa on top of it and were they delicious.

I remember well my first-grade teacher, Miss Knauer. She had polio and was the most fantastic teacher there has ever been. At Christmas time she gave us each a small Christmas card that could also be hung on our trees at home. Mine was a small lamb and to this day, I still have it.

Myself and all of my siblings were involved in music. Mary Ruth and I took piano lessons from our neighbor, Patty Gould, for quite some time. As we grew older we were in the school band. My oldest brother, Eddie Wayne, started playing in the high school band when he was in the fifth grade. We all four played the French horn.

For six years (including junior high) the Greencastle High School band performed at several functions. The main one I remember was the Christmas parade from the high school on Spring Street to downtown following Santa’s sleigh. And then when I was in high school we marched, again following Santa in his sleigh to the courthouse. I must mention that the ugly maroon band uniforms we wore felt like they were paper thin as we marched on what seemed like the coldest day of the year.

I never really knew my grandparents. Both of my grandfathers passed before I was born. My Grandma Barr lived in Anderson, which at that time was a long, long drive for my father. She was a very large woman with snow white hair and beautiful. The only time I remember her being at our house in Greencastle was one Christmas. She was sitting in one of our big State Farm rockers. While sitting there she gave my siblings and I each a present. I do not know what she gave my brothers but she gave my sister, Mary Ruth, and I long, red flannel nightgowns. And they were from Ayre’s in downtown Indianapolis! A double treat. I think we were just as proud of the big red Christmas boxes as we were the nightgowns. Unfortunately, Grandma Barr passed away when I was in the fourth grade and by her living in Anderson I never did get to spend much time with her or really get to know her as a grandma.

My Grandma O’Hair lived right in Greencastle. This was my mother’s mother. She had multiple strokes and was basically an invalid. My mother and her siblings took turns staying with her in her home on Beveridge Street. Again, my main memory of Grandma O’Hair was at Christmas time. She was always in bed and the only time I remember seeing her out of bed was one Christmas Eve. She and my step-grandfather Everett were sitting on the couch. I believe most of her children were there that evening and several of her grandchildren.

My cousin Helen Sue Rossok Zeiner was there along with other cousins. She had received a small pink plastic set of doll dishes from Santa, a very puzzling occurrence for me. It was only Christmas Eve and Santa had already been to see her and her brothers. My father solved the mystery — because Helen Sue lived in town, Santa got to her house a lot quicker than ours as we lived in the country. We only lived two miles south of town but Santa had so many children to deliver presents to that it would be way past our bedtime before he actually arrived at our house. And this apparently was true as when we got out of bed Christmas morning, Santa had been there.

I want to include part of a story my father wrote about his family Christmas:

“The entire family, with the exception of grandpa, enjoyed Santa’s visit and the gifts he bore. For some reason or another grandpa always stepped out just a few minutes before our Christmas visitor came to call. The absence always seemed to bother St. Nick too, for he always asked about grandpa and left him some chewing tobacco or a red bandana handkerchief. By grandpa missing Santa every year worried us. Some years later when we got too smart for our britches, we decided that Santa Claus and grandpa had been playing double roles.”

There is a reason I decided to write my Christmas memories for my family and friends this year.

I have been doing some research for our Putnam County Museum. Lisa Mock, director of the museum, encouraged me to research the two orphanages that were in Greencastle. One of the orphanages, the Methodist Children’s Home, run by Angie Godwin, was eventually moved to Lafayette. I have been most fortunate to have access to some of the very old records of the Greencastle Orphan’s Home, later called the Allison Home. This home was started by Mary Allison in 1896.

In working on this research, I have read about the Christmas times these young children had to experience while being in the home. Many of these little ones had no parents, or were sent to the orphanage was a ward of the court. As I typed, the tears poured and my heart went out to these children.

Sometimes, maybe a church would come by and sing for them on Christmas Day. Sometimes not. I realized the many blessings I had.

I feel so blessed for the life I had growing up with Santa in Greencastle.