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Mineral Point and Highland both started their Christmas (Holiday) celebrations last weekend with events going on. Santa made a stop at both places and made an appearance to get youngsters' Christmas Lists. There were lights shining galore and festive decorations too.
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This weekend, in Dodgeville, youngsters can take part in the Little Givers Magic Market from 9-2 both Saturday and Sunday at the Red Room Bar & Restaurant just off the main street. They can shop, with the help of elves, for their parents, siblings, other relatives and friends without their parents knowledge of what they are buying! All COVID-19 protocol will be in place in the basement of the establishment - social distancing, facial coverings, sanitizing, etc. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be there for photos. There will also be a pancake breakfast available. Check out the photo above from last year!
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Also on Saturday from 8-noon, at St. Joseph School and Church parking lot off of East Walnut Street, Santa will be there for a drive-by meeting with the youngsters and to take their Christmas lists. You will also see a Live Nativity by the St. Joseph 8th graders too!
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Bob (Kratochwill) stood us up for Saturday breakfast so it was Terry and me going to Cafe by Country Kitchen in Dodgeville for a very good meal! Bob had another commitment! We talked with owner Craig (Dougherty) for quite awhile about the restaurant business, grants that may come to businesses and basketball (his daughter plays and he coaches grade school play here). Scott Mau, a friend, who I hadn't seen since his coaching days at Highland and Riverdale, was there and stopped to fill us in on his activities. He does a lot of refereeing basketball at JustAgame Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells. His daughter plays on a "very good" Black Hawk High School team and is a senior this year.
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Santa will be in Linden on the 19th and will possibly be making stops in other communities. With the COVID-19 thing though, he may not be making too many stops before Christmas. He doesn't want to come down with anything on Christmas Eve as he has a lot of stops to make that night!
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Tis the Season for Giving! I would rather give gifts than get them. I remember shopping for Pat's kids, other relatives and some friends' kids years ago when Heibel True Value Hardware was downtown. It was located in the building where Robin Lindner now has Farmyard Primitives & Antiques. It was also Carousel Collectibles & Antiques for all you "oldsters" like me. Anyway, downstairs they had a great toy department. When I was stopping in about advertising I would go downstairs (several times) and pick out toys for the kids. They would wrap them and set them aside, all labeled so I wouldn't mess up, and I would pick them up on Christmas Eve and pay for everything then (I guess they trusted me)! I also picked out some things upstairs too. I used to tell everyone that I did all my shopping on Christmas Eve, so in a way I wasn't fibbing because I paid for it all then! Actually I did shop for everyone else on my list Christmas Eve, but I had been to a lot of stores on my ad route, so I knew what I wanted, and some of them did the kind of layaway thing for me too!