This time of year I get real nostalgic about memories from Christmases past. Here is one of them. My second year at Albany State, a frat brother asked me if I was interested in making some quick money during the holiday break working for the railroad (at that time New York Central was the main carrier in that part of New York state) unloading rail cars filled with parcels and loading them on to trucks that were going out to all the post offices in Northern New York and the Capitol District area.

The distribution area was a big open platform located right along the Hudson River. A bitterly cold wind was coming off the water and I am sure if we did not have to keep moving all the time, we would have frozen right in place. Coming from the North Country, I thought I could handle the cold but not this kind.

There was only about six of us in the crew and we had to handle all those canvas mail bags. Each one had its final Post Office destination on the tag. It gave me a warm feeling knowing that I had a hand in getting Christmas presents to kids in my home town of Chateaugay. We worked from seven am until about four pm when it got too dark to see the tags clearly. After each truck was filled, it took off to its final destination making stops at the all the Post Offices along the way. There was no Fedex or UPS back in those days that would deliver right to your doorstep, you would get a notice in your mail box telling you that there was a package waiting at your Post Office.

We worked several days right up through the day before Christmas Eve day. After we emptied all the rail cars and the bags were loaded on the delivery trucks, the back doors were shut tight and the trucks took off. We were told that they would travel all night so the parcels would be at their proper Post Office the next day. We were finished and told that was it, we did not have to report to work the next day.

I really didn't think I was going to get home for Christmas but the next day on a Trailways Bus heading to Malone, not far from Chateaugay . The bus was packed because of the many stops we made on our way up through the Adirondacks, to its final destination, Malone. The atmosphere on the bus was very festive; soon we all started singing Christmas carols and holiday songs. It was snowing hard and the going got tough but we didn't care as we all were going to be able to spend Christmas with our families. I began to get worried that my mom would not be able to get to the bus stop because of the snow but when we pulled up to the bus stop after eight pm, there she was.

You know, it wasn't until years later that I realized that the bus driver probably did not make it home for Christmas as Malone was the end of the run. Today, we have our unsung heroes; we had them back then as well.

That's it, that's my Christmas story. If you have a story you would like to share, please add it at the top and hit the SEND button so we can all enjoy it.

Royal