I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to pick up a few groceries. As I was pulling in to park, I saw a flashing electric sign in the window that read “Merry Christmas”. Most years Jake does a bit of decorating about the store, but it is limited to a wreath of plastic holly on the door and a small fake tree over near the pot belly stove. Jake claims he sort of likes the way Christmas things look about the store, but he hates the chore of gathering them up and storing them away when Christmas has passed. Of consequence, he puts up just enough to let folks know he remembers the season and not so much but what he can gather it up in just a few minutes the morning after Christmas Day and stuff it all into a box until next year. The elaborate yard decorations and such he leaves to his wife Maureen to arrange around their house across the street. This year, with his daughter, Chrissy, down from Jersey to pass the holidays through New Year’s, Maureen has gone all out with a Manger Scene in the front yard and enough red, yellow, and green lights strung over the house and yard plants to give the sky a Christmas glow that can be seen from most of the county.

I climbed out of the car and, when I came to the front door, I saw the plastic holly was in the accustomed place. I pushed the door open and the warmth from the pot belly stove felt good. Jake was over at the counter ringing up groceries for Miss Beatrice Henderson. It has been a while since I saw Miss Henderson. If I remember correctly, the last time we met, Miss Henderson landed on me pretty hard about something I had reported in this commentary about the local school system. Miss Henderson is a career school teacher, and one of the best as I understand, and she had not taken kindly to my rather caustic comments, nor was she in the least reluctant to let me know exactly how she felt about my reporting. She looked up as I came in and smiled right pleasantly. She was paying Jake as I came even with her and I saw she had quite a load of stuff to carry out to her car. Jake was maneuvering the wire frame shopping cart Miss Henderson had used to collect the items she was buying so that he could use it to take her groceries out to her car. In the spirit of the season, I suggested I could help and I gathered up three of the bags in my arms. Jake grinned and gathered up three more and Miss Henderson was left with a bag containing two plastic wrapped bread loaves. She held the front door for us and we trooped out to her car. Miss Henderson instructed us how to position the groceries just so for the ride home and thanked us for our help. “Merry Christmas,” she said as she climbed into her car.

Jake and I went back inside. A mist of cold rain was beginning to come down out of the overcast sky. I pointed to the new sign in the window and told Jake it looked nice. Jake grinned and said he had decided to go all out this year with his decorations. He pointed to a plastic manger scene on the shelf over his cash register. He said he wanted to remind everyone who comes into the store what Christmas is all about. He has been hearing on the news about all the controversy over what is the politically correct identification of the season. To Jake’s mind, Christmas is just fine. If it were not for the traditional celebration of the birth of Christ, there would be no holiday season to be politically correct about. That is the reason Jake bought the electric Merry Christmas sign to hang in his window. Of course, in Soagie, Jake is mostly preaching to the choir. Most everyone in our town attends church, some more regular than others. Even those who never darken the doors of a church are mostly of the Christian persuasion, so it is unlikely Jake will ignite any controversy in our area with his Christmas decorations. It is not controversy Jake is looking for. Jake just wants to remind everyone in our area where he comes down with calling the season Christmas.

I heard some laughter from over by the pot belly stove. There beside the traditional plastic Christmas tree, Taterbug and Ellie were putting on a show for the Charlie’s Regulars around the stove. The Reverend was there with an amused expression on his face. Taterbug is his grandson who came down from New York for Thanksgiving and begged to stay on until after Christmas. Ellie is, of course, Jake’s grandchild who is staying with Jake and Maureen until after New Year’s when she goes back to Jersey with her mother. Taterbug is a natural showman and Ellie has joined in with him with an infectious enthusiasm. Watching the show along with the Reverend was Hermann Spencer, Ronnie Clayton, Hurshel Ledbedder and his wife, Dolly. Willard Smith was there, too, as was my friend Bob Havershold.

The presentation they were making as I stood watching was a Christmas show. Taterbug was relating the Christmas Story with a number of jokes tossed in to make his audience laugh. Most of the jokes were of the kind such as claiming Joseph and Mary could not find a room at the Hilton, so they went looking to the Holiday Inn. There were props the two children had made for their show with cutouts of the shepherds, the Wise Men, and a fat man Taterbug identified as “Wide John Virgin”. Taterbug would pause in his presentation and Ellie would sing a song or two in her high off key voice. “They’ve been doing two and three shows per day,” Jake said. “And they mostly gather an audience. Folks seem to enjoy watching them. The kids were just doing the shows for fun until last Saturday when Ronnie gave them each a dollar when they had finished up. That dollar just ruined Taterbug. Now the kids pass the hat for money at the conclusion of each performance, and mostly they come away with a couple bucks each. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Taterbug go into show business as a profession when he grows older. He seems pretty serious about what he is doing for a five year old. As for Ellie, I think it’s just a game to play and have fun. I’m happy to have the kids do it as it livens up the place.” I went about gathering up groceries for the week and, before I left I wished Jake and all the folks in Soagie and the readers of this commentary a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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