We can not talk about the sounds of Christmas without mentioning Christmas bells. Many of my younger friends often share their memories of riding around Superior with Santa Claus on his motorized sleigh. Of course that sleight had a sound system which could be heard for blocks and helped build the day’s festive spirit. Today it would be considered primitive but in those days it was considered to be a marvelous system. That particular sleigh began as a dream fostered by two Superior area residents, Eugene Karmazin, the operator of a downtown Superior business, and Cliff Grove, a Cadams area farmer and businessman. Their sleigh was a converted school bus.

But the motorized sleigh idea preceded Grove and Karmazin. Newspaper articles report Santa was visiting Superior with a motorized sleigh as early as 1953. A 1954 issue of The Express reported Santa would offer rides from 1 to 7 p.m. on Thursday. The next year it was reported he would return again on Friday afternoon, Dec. 2.

Schools must have let out early on the days Santa visited. I don’t remember when school let out but I do remember attending Pleasant Valley School and getting to ride with Dale Adcock and his son, Tom, to school in a pickup truck on the days Santa visited Superior. In the afternoon, Dale would be off buying cattle but Charlene (Tom’s mom) would pick us up at school in the family automobile and take us into Superior to ride in Santa’s Sleigh. Other times see drove us to town so we could see a free movie at the Crest. Suspect I should have thanked not only the Adcocks for the ride but also Howard Crilly, the then publisher of this newspaper and Charlene’s employer. He had to allow Charlene time off for transport duty.

A 1953 Express story reported, “In private life, Santa Claus with the motorized sleigh and prancing reindeer who is doing such a grand job entertaining the kiddies in Superior this afternoon is Bob George, a Cozad Nebraska barber. George is known all over the state for his efforts annually to spread Christmas cheer and spirit to thousands of youngsters. Beginning the day after Thanksgiving, George and his driver, Jack Perry, have visited 15 Nebraska cities giving rides to an estimated 6,000 children. George is 29 years old and has been a Santa Claus stand-in since 1950 when he financed a Christmas party for the children of his home town,”

In 1955, it was reported the Cozad barber was operating two motorized sleighs and business was so good he planned to add two more for the 1956 season. He was getting requests for his sleighs from far-off places like St. Paul, Minn., and Dallas, Texas. Omaha and Dallas had indicated they each wanted to book a sleigh for an entire week.

But far and away the downtown Superior Christmas memory that stands at the top of my favorites was the year the Methodist Bell Choir presented a concert to mark the opening of the Christmas shopping season.

It was snowing lightly as the choir rang their bells at Fourth and Central. It was a setting worthy of a movie.

Bells have been associated with Christmas since the middle ages and are said to be one of the most commonly held Christmas traditions. In some communities, church bells are rang at midnight to signal the birth of Jesus.

Bells became a popular form of communication in the middle ages. They were used to communicate the time of day, the arrival of important persons, signal important announcements and the beginning and end of various events and celebrations.

Many country schools and nearly all churches used to have bells. Where I was raised in the country, I never heard a bell ring but it was fun to be in Superior on Sunday morning and hear the various church bells ringing.

Though I don’t remember hearing it ring, Superior’s Fourth Street fire station had a bell on the roof that was used before the siren to summon the firemen. That bell is now displayed at the Fifth Street fire station. In current times, the bell in the Nuckolls County Historical Society’s’s museum church is rung to signal the start of the society’s annual Christmas program.

The old rock school house at Lovewell State Park which now serves as the lake church, has a bell which youngsters like to ring as a service signal.

My father liked bells and once owned the first rural school house bell in Jewell County. I’m sorry to report someone stole the bell. Hopefully, the thief realized and has preserved the bell’s historical significance.

Dad mounted a dinner bell near the back door of the house I now live in. Not wanting to disturb the neighborhood, I seldom ring the bell. But this Christmas Eve, if I am still awake at midnight, I may ring the bell to signal the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

———————

Jobs are sometimes harder than they first appear. I’ve been told, “Wish I had a job as easy as yours. Putting out a newspaper one day a week, can’t be hard work. Work one day and have six off, what can be hard about that?”

Well it is harder than you may think. In 1923 the editor of the Burr Oak Herald shared the following dilemma with his readers.

When printing auction ads, he observed some newspapers included the cream separator with the household goods and some included cream separators with the farm machinery. He didn’t know where to place the separator and he was faced with a similar problem.

He had a sale bill to print and needed advice on where to list the items. The sale bill included three skunks. Should the skunks be included with the livestock or the household goods?

——————

Sidenote to the earlier entry: Eugene Karmazin purchased the Pursell Tavern in December of 1953, having just been discharged from the army after having serving a year in Korea. I remember him as an enterprising man willing to try new ideas. In addition to operating Santa’s sleigh, I suspect his tavern may have been the first in Superior to feature pizza. As a high school student I was asked to transport pizza from his establishment to a school function. Before his death he was a travelling salesman. When I was thinking about building a car wash on West Third Street, Gene drove me to Gering, Nebraska to look at a car wash operating in that community.