Santa and the Escalators
During the Christmas Season in 1944 I worked each Saturday and the Christmas holiday sseason at Eaton's Department Store in Montreal. Only 15 at the time I had two challenging assignments. One was to supervise the long line up of children, usually accompanied by their momma or a big sister, as they waited their turn to visit with Santa to assure him they had been very good so that they could count on him to deliver on his flying sleigh the many presents they believed they so richly deserved. The other job was to stand at either the top or bottom end of the escalator because at the time they were a new and somewhat rickety and noisey innovation and many people looked for assistance to avoid tripping and falling.
I don't recall receiving any training or instructions so I had to innovate and do this the best I could. At the Santa assignment I had to keep my cool of course because some kids liked to pinch or poke me, or grab the back of my jacket when they thought I wasn't looking. I found keeping some sticky candies to hand out was helpful. Occasionally I had to grab a kid, while always smiling, when the brat was sneaking into the line and each day had to answer a thousand times how long it would take before Santa could finally see them. I was honest and said no when they asked me if I was one of Santa's elfs. The line ups were usually very long so there were several of us controlling the line. On reflection the girls were much better at it.
The Escalator was a very different assignment. There was a button I could push . It gave me power because could stop it if someone fell down - which happened just about every day. I also reached out my hand regularly to assist elderly people to step on and step off. Often elderly people simply wanted to talk to me, wanting to know my age and how I was doing in school. The young kids were often the opposite and one way or the other insulted me by asking how I managed to get such a dumb cushy job. The best time was when school friends said Hi! as they passed by, especially if it was some girls that went up and down a few times just to giggle and say Hi! again.
I can't recall exactly what I was paid, it was something like 30 cents an hour. A day's wages was enough to take a girl to the movies including street car tickets, pop corn and maybe a milkshake at the soda fountain. It was worth standing all day by the escalator for that.
The Escalator and the Zoot-Suit Riots
The Zoot Suit was a strange kind of suit. It was a fashionable fad among some young men in the 1940s. In general, a zoot suit consisted of a long, loose coat with wide, padded shoulders, ballooning pants worn very high above the waist, an over sized bow-tie, a wide-brimmed hat and a long, hanging watch chain. These flamboyant outfits were meant to attract attention and those wearing them were commonly referred to as "zoot-suiters" or "zooters". This fad was most common in North America .
It was a suit symbolizing rebellion. In Quebec the Zoot-Suiters rebellion was against the call to be conscripted to fight the war in Europe. Many saw it as a British call to arms and they wanted no part of it.
This became a source of tension in Montreal between the the Zoot-Suitors and military personnel with roving gangs fighting throughout the city starting in late 1943 and continuing throughout the first half of 1944. When a sailor and his girlfriend were severely beaten in May hundreds of sailors left their ships, roamed the city looking for Zoot-Suiters and pitched battles took place on the main streets and in the parks. When trapped the Zooters clothing was ripped off, and badly bruised they were left in their underwear or less. Hundreds of the Zooters and military had been injured in the battles, military personnel were finally confined to barracks, only 40 people were arrested (37 of them sailors) and, amazing by today's standards where guns and deadly knives are commonplace, no one was killed.
It started out as a pretty routine day at my post at the foot of the escalator. I had to stop a group of kids who wanted to go down while crowds were going up, an old man stumbled and scattered his Xmas chocolates and walnuts on the escalator that messily finally arrived at the top, so it just stated out as a normal day. Suddenly three sailors rushed to the foot of the escalator rudely pushing others aside and proceeded to rush up taking two steps at a time. I simply shouted Hey! but they didn't look back. Within seconds about fifteen colorfully dressed Zoot-Suiters arrived in hot pursuit up the escalator. The comments and oaths uttered at this point by the startled patrons of the stores are too numerous and impolite to list here. No sooner had the Zooters disappeared to the floors above when a large number of sailors arrived - my guess about fifty or so - and demanded that everyone stand aside as they jammed their way up the escalator, Then all was quiet and we all wondered what was going on up there but ordered to stay where we were. A little while later a disheveled group of warriors came down the escalator and the elevator doors disgorged more of them. Badly outnumbered the Zooters had lost the battle and they were a sad and angry lot with their clothing removed and wrapped in sheets generously donated by Eaton's. But they had been valiant warriors because although badly outnumbered I observed that many sailors shared their torn clothing, bruised, faces and swollen eyes as they all shuffled out the door to waiting vans with oaths, whoops and hollers. When I think about it now it reminds me of a typical rugger match.
The job wasn't so dumb and boring after all and I now I had something to talk about.
During the Christmas Season in 1944 I worked each Saturday and the Christmas holiday sseason at Eaton's Department Store in Montreal. Only 15 at the time I had two challenging assignments. One was to supervise the long line up of children, usually accompanied by their momma or a big sister, as they waited their turn to visit with Santa to assure him they had been very good so that they could count on him to deliver on his flying sleigh the many presents they believed they so richly deserved. The other job was to stand at either the top or bottom end of the escalator because at the time they were a new and somewhat rickety and noisey innovation and many people looked for assistance to avoid tripping and falling.
I don't recall receiving any training or instructions so I had to innovate and do this the best I could. At the Santa assignment I had to keep my cool of course because some kids liked to pinch or poke me, or grab the back of my jacket when they thought I wasn't looking. I found keeping some sticky candies to hand out was helpful. Occasionally I had to grab a kid, while always smiling, when the brat was sneaking into the line and each day had to answer a thousand times how long it would take before Santa could finally see them. I was honest and said no when they asked me if I was one of Santa's elfs. The line ups were usually very long so there were several of us controlling the line. On reflection the girls were much better at it.
The Escalator was a very different assignment. There was a button I could push . It gave me power because could stop it if someone fell down - which happened just about every day. I also reached out my hand regularly to assist elderly people to step on and step off. Often elderly people simply wanted to talk to me, wanting to know my age and how I was doing in school. The young kids were often the opposite and one way or the other insulted me by asking how I managed to get such a dumb cushy job. The best time was when school friends said Hi! as they passed by, especially if it was some girls that went up and down a few times just to giggle and say Hi! again.
I can't recall exactly what I was paid, it was something like 30 cents an hour. A day's wages was enough to take a girl to the movies including street car tickets, pop corn and maybe a milkshake at the soda fountain. It was worth standing all day by the escalator for that.
The Escalator and the Zoot-Suit Riots
The Zoot Suit was a strange kind of suit. It was a fashionable fad among some young men in the 1940s. In general, a zoot suit consisted of a long, loose coat with wide, padded shoulders, ballooning pants worn very high above the waist, an over sized bow-tie, a wide-brimmed hat and a long, hanging watch chain. These flamboyant outfits were meant to attract attention and those wearing them were commonly referred to as "zoot-suiters" or "zooters". This fad was most common in North America .
It was a suit symbolizing rebellion. In Quebec the Zoot-Suiters rebellion was against the call to be conscripted to fight the war in Europe. Many saw it as a British call to arms and they wanted no part of it.
This became a source of tension in Montreal between the the Zoot-Suitors and military personnel with roving gangs fighting throughout the city starting in late 1943 and continuing throughout the first half of 1944. When a sailor and his girlfriend were severely beaten in May hundreds of sailors left their ships, roamed the city looking for Zoot-Suiters and pitched battles took place on the main streets and in the parks. When trapped the Zooters clothing was ripped off, and badly bruised they were left in their underwear or less. Hundreds of the Zooters and military had been injured in the battles, military personnel were finally confined to barracks, only 40 people were arrested (37 of them sailors) and, amazing by today's standards where guns and deadly knives are commonplace, no one was killed.
It started out as a pretty routine day at my post at the foot of the escalator. I had to stop a group of kids who wanted to go down while crowds were going up, an old man stumbled and scattered his Xmas chocolates and walnuts on the escalator that messily finally arrived at the top, so it just stated out as a normal day. Suddenly three sailors rushed to the foot of the escalator rudely pushing others aside and proceeded to rush up taking two steps at a time. I simply shouted Hey! but they didn't look back. Within seconds about fifteen colorfully dressed Zoot-Suiters arrived in hot pursuit up the escalator. The comments and oaths uttered at this point by the startled patrons of the stores are too numerous and impolite to list here. No sooner had the Zooters disappeared to the floors above when a large number of sailors arrived - my guess about fifty or so - and demanded that everyone stand aside as they jammed their way up the escalator, Then all was quiet and we all wondered what was going on up there but ordered to stay where we were. A little while later a disheveled group of warriors came down the escalator and the elevator doors disgorged more of them. Badly outnumbered the Zooters had lost the battle and they were a sad and angry lot with their clothing removed and wrapped in sheets generously donated by Eaton's. But they had been valiant warriors because although badly outnumbered I observed that many sailors shared their torn clothing, bruised, faces and swollen eyes as they all shuffled out the door to waiting vans with oaths, whoops and hollers. When I think about it now it reminds me of a typical rugger match.
The job wasn't so dumb and boring after all and I now I had something to talk about.
No comments:
Post a Comment