Fifth Generation

Here is a story of a man who dressed as Santa Claus in order to kidnap children.

I was one of those children who believed in Santa Claus. I think because as a child I didn’t get a lot of toys except at Christmas or on my birthday. Even though my parents were not wealthy, we always got special presents. It always seemed like a miracle. (Now I know that it was actually credit cards!!) So you can imagine that if I saw a man with a long white beard I would think it was the REAL Santa Claus. I remember riding in my parent’s Ford Pinto Station Wagon sans seat belts and in the next car seeing a man with a long white beard in the next car. I was so excited and believed that was Santa Claus. I waved at the old man and he waved back with a sweet smile on his face. This was over 20 years ago so the old man probably really was a nice old Southern gentleman. I lived in Memphis not far from Faulkner country after all.The old man with the long white beard only brings happy safe images in my mind. There is the Colonel Sanders the founder of KFC, for Southerners, Robert E. Lee, for liberals, Karl Marx and then for every Christian child, Santa Claus. I remember seeing pictures of my great grandfathers, gentlemen looking so cool with long white beards. Men with long white beards were men to be respected and honored. They were usually kind to children, the men who would sneak you candy when your mother wasn’t looking. The candy was never even poisoned. When I was a child you felt safe saying “hi” to the old man with the long white beard. Sometimes the old men would play along and say they were Santa Claus. There was nothing dirty or nasty about it. It was innocent. I remember being invited into old people’s houses where their wives would give us cookies. It was kind of like a Dennis the Menace scenario. Old people were safe back then. They were your granddaddies and mamaws. They always let your parents know where you were and were likely to protect you as much as your own parents.

Now old people are no longer safe. Even “Santa Claus” might try to hurt your child. A man who looks like Colonel Sanders might really be a dirty old man. My daughter was lucky to live in Hawaii, probably the last place in the country where the elderly are safe. I even checked the sex offender’s list and it was clean where I lived. I did the same check in Alabama and there were several listed who attacked not teen girls but little children. One of the men had a long white beard.

Now long white bearded men no longer have an innocent respectful connotation. Now we think of old dirty redneck hippies who never grew up, motorcycle gang members, or Al Qaeda. My children will never be able to go up to the old man with the white beard anymore without my supervision. I even feel uncomfortable having my children sit in Santa’s lap. Gone is an innocent era.

Good Bye to an Era:
Guess who are these white bearded gentlemen.

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