Strangely enough, memories don’t always center around gifts, but favorite people now gone. When I asked Shannon her favorite memory, she answered in a nanosecond. Elby’s, her beloved Papa, her brother, Doug, and the five boisterous Webster clan. When Tamera, Susan, Michael, Matthew and Brian gathered together they resembled a Marx brother ensemble on steroids..Each Christmas Eve at noon, my Dad took the kids to see Santa and lunch. It was a last minute trip to remind Santa (who had a lot on his mind) not to forget about them.. They could eat whatever they desired for lunch. With Shannon it was always spaghetti. They were dressed in their Sunday best and off they went in that big old Lincoln a sure violation of all the traffic safety laws in the West Virginia code. Remember this was back when there were no laws restricting seat belts on passengers. They piled seven kids of various ages one on top of each other to make the trip. The trip was often as much fun as the meal. One year the sheer weight caused a flat tire. Out of nine of them no one knew how to fix a flat tire. Luckily a good Samaritan changed it for them..The memory is not without trauma.
As the kids aged, Shannon was the youngest who still put on the little fur coat and hat and put her hands in a muff for this event…….and most of all she still “believed.” As they careened down Main Street in the upper end of Weirton, who should the group spot but a santa coming straight out of a liquor store. Seeing his inebriated state, the boys started yelling for Papa to speed up and hit him. Papa is playing along speeding up and slowing down as Shannon screams. To this day, she will not reveal if it was Santa she was concerned about or that he would be sitting in the drunk tank while her Chatty Cathy baby doll was stuck in his sleigh.
