Willys and Betty Peck and their children Anna and Bill were pictured caroling in a 1962 Christmas card.
Of all the holidays, Christmas is the one most likely to inspire indelible memories of sights, sounds and emotions. For me, young voices blending in a chorus of "O, Come All Ye Faithful" or "Joy to the World," followed by a slamming of car doors in the early-morning darkness, qualify as best-remembered sounds.
The time was the mid-1930s. The locale was the neighborhood of the old Saratoga Inn--not to be confused with the Inn at Saratoga. I would be asleep in the bedroom my brother and I shared in the family home on Orchard Road, a couple of hundred yards from the Inn, when I would be awakened by that singing with its car-door finale. I knew then that the day had officially arrived; Christmas was here. The singers, including my brother, were from the Federated Church youth group. From the Inn, the carolers went on to serenade shut-ins and others likely to be cheered by seasonal music.
By the time I joined this entourage, the caroling expedition had been moved from early Christmas Day to late afternoon of the day before, but we covered pretty much the same territory.
In 1939 a new pastor, Rev. Fred R. Morrow, arrived with some ideas for variations on a theme. For starters, he set up green and red floodlights around the tower of what is now the chapel, then the main sanctuary, giving it the appearance of a giant Christmas package. Then, on Christmas Eve, we carolers started our expedition singing from the belfry in the tower, climbing through the little trap door over the balcony. Since the side openings in the belfry are about head-high, the effect was a little like singing in a well, and it's questionable how far our voices carried. But it was a novel experience for the kids, and it exemplified Rev. Morrow's ability to relate to teen-agers. His was a very positive influence on our young lives.
My wife, Betty, and I got involved with our own Christmas caroling group. Before our marriage in 1952, Betty, as a young schoolteacher in Los Gatos, used to get a group of her friends together to go caroling at Christmas time, so it was logical to continue the activity. The earliest participants with us were Ellsworth and Jackie Welch and Vic and Barbie Ulmer. This nucleus expanded over a very few years, and before long we had a troupe of more than a dozen, plus assorted progeny. We'd go out over a span of two or three nights, climaxing the final night with a goose dinner, a la Charles Dickens, hosted by participating families on a rotating basis. Betty and I have retired from this activity, but I'm pleased to say that some of the assorted progeny are carrying on, down to and including the goose dinner. In our reversed role as carolees, we look forward to a visit this season.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 25, 1996.
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