| Larry Powell: Post office delivers that holiday spirit 12/20/2000 By / The Dallas Morning News Good morning, postal customers. Let's tie up some of the loose ends of Christmas.
This will be anecdotal praise of the U.S. Postal Service – I'm sure there's a high-dollar university-level study somewhere that says the hired hands at the post office could work harder, work faster, etc. Couldn't we all?
Forget the scholarly study. What matters to most of us is not what's in a study but what greets us when we drop by to mail a package.
Consider the Joe Pool Post Office next to Red Bird Airport. Just after 8:30 a.m. Monday, there may have been 15 or 20 people in line. But the line moved as smoothly as eight tiny reindeer roof-hopping in a subdivision. The cheerful trio of clerks sold stamps, insurance, helped with tape on packages, etc. One even wore a Santa hat. And on the counter there was a festively decorated box labeled "Letters to Santa."
By holly jolly golly, it looked like Christmas.
Maybe the clerks' attitude rubbed off on the customers. Maybe the customers came in happy Monday morning – whoa, that's a long shot in Dallas. Some customers even struck up brief conversations – yes, talking with strangers about Christmas, the rush, the drive to get things done.
As those of us in line awaited the traditional "Next, please" greeting from a clerk, the middle-aged woman behind me sighed and said, "Well, it won't be long now." And the distinguished, gray-haired, World War II-era gent in front of me smiled and said, "Yep, like the monkey said when he caught his tail in the door. It won't be long now."
They both laughed at the ancient line. So did people around them. Maybe this Christmas cheer thing is as catching as a cold.
The Christmas spirit is nothing to sneeze at.
A question from Christmas Past
In Monday's column about Dec. 18, 1955, I mentioned the WFAA-TV (Channel 8) presentation of a marionette version of The Night Before Christmas.
Ennis teacher Melinda Ludwig wrote: "I remember this as the highlight of the season when I was a little kid. It was also accompanied by a 15-minute marionette version of the first Christmas. I believe it was sponsored by Bell Telephone. Wish it was on video somewhere 'cause I'd love to see it again."
Indeed, the show's ad said the sponsor was "The Telephone Company," which was what we old-timers called the Bell System until the Justice Department broke up the company in 1984.
Maybe Santa Bell knows the whereabouts of an old copy of these marionette programs. Surely the phone company lawyers have one in a vault somewhere. Let us kids know.
Canafax at Christmas
Depend on A.G. Canafax to be upbeat about a downfall. Mr. Canafax, a regular contributor to the lighthearted side of this column, called to report that he's in rehab at Presbyterian Hospital. A couple of weeks ago, while innocently raking leaves in his yard, he took a tumble and broke his left hip. Now he has a new hip and a new exercise schedule. He'll probably be up and around quicker than most of us can get out of a recliner after Christmas dinner.
He says, "One thing I learned muy pronto was that 84 years and a broken hip don't mix." And, he vows, "This eliminates one phrase from my vocabulary entirely: 'Give me a break.'"
Larry Powell can be reached at 214-977-8487; P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, TX 75265; fax 214-977-8319 or at
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