Singing in bank lobbies, munching peanut brittle, delivering Yuletide gifts
A goodly bit of my Christmas memories spent in Warren, dealing with the downtown merchants.
It was a beehive of activity in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the holiday season was truly active, vibrant, and fun filled for a young teenager with a plum job at the only newspaper in town.
There were choral groups singing in the bank lobbies.
By Maylon Rice
Saline River Chronicle Feature Contributor
I mean full concerts with lots of hand motions, Christmas bell shaking and smiles galore.
Mary Lou Martin would marshal up the Madrigals and some smaller, more talented girls’ groups to sing in the lobbies of the Warren Bank and First National Bank (at that time the only two real banks in town). There would be a full bank staff present for the concerts and usually a crystal punch bowl filled to the brim with delicious cold and hot cider to sip.
Usually there was a ton of pastry goodies from Hanks Bakery (owned by the Binns family) with lots of delicious cookies, pastries and usually especially at the Warren Bank some select peanut brittle that simply melted in your mouth.
The bank employee who made the delicious brittle was shy about her concoction. But I was never to leave the bank during the holidays without snatching up a segment of the brittle, wrapped in a napkin for my boss back at the newspaper.
There were also some of my classmates who worked for the holidays wrapping gifts for the various clothing and gift shops in downtown Warren.
One dad of a pair of daughters always laughed at one young, local merchant who one day would go on to be mayor of Warren, “knew how to increase Christmas sales, just let a gaggle of teenagers’ work wrapping gifts. And all day long they were also trying on new clothes and telling the co-workers how good they looked in these new outfits all day long.”
These gift-wrapping gigs were prevalent all up and down the Main Street in Warren.
I knew one young lady who worked at one of the shoe outlets in Warren who spent a good part of her day – wrapping up boxes of new athletic shoes, hunting boots and the like.
Another young lady worked at the jewelry stores and knew all the contents of the tiny boxes delicately wrapped with such skill and care.
And even the floral shops got in the holiday spirit. One classmate worked almost nonstop wrapping Christmas cactuses and poinsettias in bright foil paper and delivering them to homes all over the region.
And of course, with so many of our lovely classmates working in the stores, there was no shortage of young boys hanging out around these stores to flirt with the girls.
I also remember the tiny Santa House on the corner of Main and Cypress set back just a bit on the west side of Main. This tiny one-room prefab enclosure was the brainchild of former Chamber of Commerce man and later Bradley County Judge James W. Ernest.
Ernest and John Luther Hartsell, assisted Santa in visiting with kids in the house while the parents stood outside and peeked through the big bay windows at the magic going on inside.
Santa would be in a wooden rocking chair with easy access to a gift-wrapped box that contained a simply red-knit stocking filled with tiny toys, nuts, an orange or two and some stick pepper-mint candy, all free for the boys and girls brave enough to knock on the door and enter Santa’s House to tell the bearded portly gentleman their Christmas wishes.
A big part of my Christmas each year was spent delivering the gifts from the newspaper/printing empire to customers all over town.
In my later year, it was carting around the Miss Merry Christmas honoree and snapping photos of her in all the downtown and area stores and businesses.
Over the years, I learned to be quick, efficient, and aware that at least half of these Miss Merry Christmas candidates would be late for the start time, need to change her outfit at least twice (or they would appear in the same outfit in 30 or more photos) and they would always be sweet if a Dairy Queen soft drink was always at the ready to sip on while making these rounds.
Ah the memories of the holidays in downtown Warren.
“Christmas is like candy; it slowly melts in your mouth, sweetening every taste bud, making you wish it could last forever,” said Rachelle Goodrich, an author who, like most of this Pastime, knows this is indeed the most special time of the year.
Merry Christmas everyone.