A “Rich” Tradition
Sunday-best attire was required. With overwhelming anticipation, my sister Sharon and I dressed for what was our favorite destination each holiday season. We would soon be boarding the bus with our mom for a journey to downtown Detroit to see Santa Claus!
Our excitement grew as the bus, loaded with holiday shoppers, arrived at our destination. Upon stepping down from the bus, we rushed to peer into the store windows, which offered a fantasyland that captured the imagination of children and adults alike. The windows set the mood for what was yet to come. After our fill of the sheer artistry of each animated scene, we squeezed through the doors of a large department store amidst hurried shoppers and joined the throng to the wooden escalators for our upward journey. Glorious twinkling, colored lights, decorated trees, hanging angels and a multitude of other holiday adornments decked the walls, the ceilings, the counters…every available space. From the escalator we transferred to an elevator. The uniformed elevator operator pulled first a gate and then golden doors before our ascension to the floor where Santa perched on a throne-like chair in an even-grander fantasyland to greet children and solicit their Christmas requests.