John Sweeney works in the Fire Marshals Office with me, but is a retired Captain of another Fire Department.
One Christmas, many years ago. This a True story. John Sweeney, while working at a Fire Station, near a once thriving Mall, was contacted by a mall director that needed to have Santa Claus arrive at the mall on a shiny red fire truck.
Well, he talked the young lady through the proper procedures to make this all happen. They got approval from the administration and the date an time were set. The mall, which was starting to decline in popularity, advertised the arrival of Santa at whatever time, one Saturday before Christmas.
That Saturday arrived and John Sweeney and his fellow firefighters arrived at the predetermined meeting spot. The time for Santa to meet the truck came and slowly passed and there was no sign of a Santa Claus. 30 minutes went by and John and his crew were getting a little worried, but they didn't know who to call.
A little more time passed and then they saw a car speeding their way and upon arrival, it was clearly the mall director and she had this fellow in a red suit all laid up in the back of her car.
You guessed it. It was Santa Claus, but he appeared to be a last minute find for this most important role. The lady appeared to have found Santa on the side of the road somewhere after pulling off a hard night, the night before. He needed help to get out of the car and onto the back of the fire truck.
There was no time to waste. They were already late and the kids were waiting for the arrival of Santa Claus at the front of the mall. John and another firefighter held onto Santa, to make sure he didn't fall off the back of the truck, and away they did go.
They arrived to the front of the mall and the kids were all yelling and cheering. Santa went to step off the back of the truck and just about fell on his face, but recovered nicely and yelled out to the cheering children. "Hey Kids, yall ready for a biscuit?"
You see, the mall director had apparently promised him breakfast for his duties and he was ready to eat. John and another firefighter grabbed him up, one on each side, and half carried Santa to his seat. They planted him in his nice big Santa seat and wished him luck.
I am certain that there is more to this story, but it ended for John at this point.
Merry Christmas!
Gary D. Huffman
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