As Santa hits the road, fire department is a driving force

As Santa hits the road, fire department is a driving force

Kevin Dayhoff kdayhoff AT carr.org Posted on http://www.explorecarroll.com/ 12/24/08

Tonight's the night when all good little boys and girls go to bed and lay awake listening for Santa Claus.

Last week I had the opportunity to witness Santa Claus making an exploratory visit to town, aboard on a Westminster Volunteer Fire Department fire engine.

Many volunteer fire departments have the tradition of traveling through Carroll County communities with Santa Claus freezing his buns off on top of a piece of fire fighting apparatus.

It is an event to behold.

I'm not sure which is the better Kodak moment: seeing little children throughout town totally transfixed on the apparition of Santa Claus coming down the street on a fire engine or watching big burly firefighters get all sappy, mushy and sentimental about making children smile for Christmas.

I believe in Santa Claus, especially having met him personally. But I've never been able to solve the mystery of why it is that when Santa is around, I can never find Tom Hyde, Scott Clendaniel, Chris Cull or Gil Roper. I suppose they must be his regular "drivers."

At any rate, traveling through town for several hours, Hyde was all smiles as Roper, Cull, and Clendaniel traded their favorite "Santa Claus detail" stories over hot soup prepared by Santa helpers Brenda Roper and Anita Kronk.

One of the tales included the time the fire engine happened upon a traffic accident and Santa Claus came running up to aid the driver of one of the cars involved in the mishap. Recalled Hyde:

"I thought the woman was going to faint as she looked up and there was Santa Claus to help her ... She said she knew she was shaken up (by the accident) but couldn't understand why Santa Claus was there. ..."

Santa said his favorite place in town to visit was up by McDaniel College when the co-eds are in town. I can only be sure it's because Santa really appreciates young folks engaged in scholarly endeavors.

The cold and occasional emergency response aren't the only challenges of riding around town shouting Merry Christmas. It seems that the job also involves getting to know where all the low wires and tree limbs are.

In any given year, the Westminster volunteers distribute around 2,000 candy canes, which presents the real Christmas mystery -- how moms and dads manage to get their children to bed after seeing Santa Claus and topping off the evening with a few candy canes.

Unfortunately, this year's bad weather kept the fire department from spreading holiday good cheer for as many evenings as they would have liked.

It seems reindeer can go anywhere in icy-rainy weather, but taking fire engines that cost several hundred thousand dollars out in bad weather for anything but an emergency response is bad form.

Moving on from one wonderful holiday tradition to another; Christmas Eve is when many families decorate their Christmas tree.

The other day I found an explanation as to why a Christmas tree is better than a man:

A Christmas tree requires very little maintenance, just a little water and they're happy.

A Christmas tree smells better and it takes up less room. It adds charm to a home and never whines.

And a Christmas tree doesn't get mad if you bust its ... (ahem) ornaments.
Merry Christmas from all of us at The Westminster Eagle.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster. E-mail him at kdayhoff AT carr.org.

http://www.explorecarroll.com/opinion/1904/santa-hits-road-fire-department-driving-force/

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Kevin Dayhoff E-mail him at: kdayhoff AT carr DOT org His columns appear in The Tentacle, http://www.thetentacle.com/; The Westminster Eagle /Eldersburg Eagle The Sunday Carroll Eagle - Opinion: http://explorecarroll.com/opinion-talk/ http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/ http://www.westminstermarylandonline.net/ http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/kevindayhoff http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1040426835 http://picasaweb.google.com/kevindayhoff