In a new Elder Voices episode, Jack Brown of Golovin discusses his life and upbringing. As an example of his infectious humor, Brown tells a story of meeting Santa.

You can listen to the full interview online at knom.org.

“When the school Christmas program was coming closer, Mom and Dad said, ‘you got to say your piece nice and loud and clear so everybody will understand what you’re saying.’ Right after I said my piece, Dad got up and walked out the door. And I’m thinking, ‘oh, no. I didn’t do good.’ My second grade teacher looked at her watch and said, ‘it’s about that time — if we listen very carefully, we might hear sleigh bells on the roof!’ We looked out the front door and we could hear Santa outside: ‘ho, ho, ho! Meeerry Christmas!’ The teacher opened the door, and there was a person in a red suit. And I thought, ‘that’s Santa. I didn’t know he was going to come.’

So my teacher got Santa a chair by the door. Santa had a big sack of gifts. He was digging in his bag and calling out kids’ names.

I checked Santa from the top of his cap. Everything was okay, all the way down to his boots: I recognized those boots! I said, ‘Mom, Santa is wearing Dad’s shoes.’ That made everyone in the room giggle. I don’t know how Santa got Dad’s shoes, but he sure was wearing Dad’s shoes. 

I thought I would never ever hear my name being called up. The last gift had my name on it. I hesitantly went up to Santa and I made sure I didn’t get too close. When I grabbed my gift, I leaned back as close to Mom as I could because I didn’t know what Santa was gonna do. Our teacher thanked Santa for coming and said we hope to see him again next year at Christmas.”

— Jack Brown

Image at top: Jack Brown. Photo by Alan Davis, used with permission.