DECEMBER 11, 2019 • WWW.THEOBSERVER.COM • VOL. CXXXII, NO. 31
COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD • EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
DEAR SANTA I
Dec. 24, 1998
t has been many decades since I have written to you or helped my children write to you. You know, even in the autumn of my life, my belief in you is still as strong as when I could barely reach the stockings hung in the living room.
Since my last letter, I’ve experienced the ups and downs, joys and sorrows, bumps and scrapes we all get as we go through life. It is precisely those experiences that instruct and mature us, expanding our capacities to live. It is also what inspires me to write to you this eve. You see, recently, I have had some misfortune and from it a gift was given me … an awareness of the love and support of family and friends. As I sit, pondering this gift and the spirit of the season, I am reminded of an incident that happened many Christmases ago.
Jack Satter, a longtime resident of Kearny, has long played Santa at Christmastime. But one child’s wishes stuck with him — prompting him to write to the real Santa about it 21 years ago.
As a young father, I had purchased a copy of your suit along with all the trimmings of your likeness in order to put forth the idea that you do, indeed, exist since in a child’s world, you are widely discussed, but seldom seen up close. It was while meeting children and discussing their list of Christmas wishes, that a girl of about 7 sat on my knee, looked me in the eye, and said, as though talking to one of her friends, “Santa, you know I’ve been a good girl this year, right?” “Yes,” I responded. “Well, I really want a Barbie doll and a doll house.” “I see,” I said. “But Santa, you don’t have to give me them this year if you can give my mommy an daddy something instead.” “Well, what would you like me to bring them?” I said with a grin. “I think jobs are like toys to daddies and my daddy lost his.
See SANTA, continued on page 23
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