Tales of a bell ringer

(Continued from Page 10) and so many nice things happen that it’s an extremely enjoyable experience.”

“One year led to another, to another, to another,” Blackman said

Now it’s become a habit.

He usually goes from around 8:30 a m to 1 p m The morning is always the busiest at the store He’s there six days a week Monday through Saturday He’s got no shortage of Christmas music, with a rotating collection of around 15 CDs

He’s got Anne Murray, Bing Crosby and Cumberland Gap Reunion’s “Smokey Mountain Christmas” in the mix, as well as “Peter Pierogi’s 30 Christmas Polka Favorites,” what Blackman calls “a real toe-tapper ”

One year, a man he had never met stopped by with a gift a homemade Christmas mixtape. The man’s hobby is making CDs, Blackman said, and he had noticed the local bell ringer’s affinity for Christmas CDs.

Every year since, he’s given Blackman another mixtape

“I tell him that I start the day, every day, with one of his Christmas CDs,” Blackman said

In 18 years on the job, Blackman said he’s seen a lot of funny, heartwarming and thought-provoking moments.

“I write every day, some little touching experience that goes by,” Blackman said He’s got a whole journal full of them. “Not a week goes by that I don’t get choked up ”

“If I ever got some energy I’d write a book,” he added. “‘Tales of the Bell Ringer’ or something.”

For a couple years there was a school bus that would go by and the kids would all wave at me and I’d ring the bell and the bus driver would beep the horn,” Blackman said.

A few years ago, the students collected change throughout the weeks they saw him and on the last day before their holiday break, the bus made an extra stop outside the grocery store so a student could run out and deliver a jar full of change to Blackman

Some people pull up, put change in, but don’t go in the store.

“I think that’s really nice, for them to take the time to do that when they’re not even shopping,” Blackman said

When parents give change to to their kids to hand him, he tips the kettle so they can reach Blackman remembers one boy of about 3 coming up to him with a clenched fist and plunking in a quarter and a nickle

“He smiled and walked away,” Blackman said “And his mother yelled ‘Put it all in!’”

The boy came back and dropped a dime and three pennies in

“I know that he is going to be successful somewhere in life, but the question is, is it going to be on the right or the wrong side of the law?” Blackman wondered

He gets a kick when people come out of the store and apologize, saying something like “I have only plastic on me today.”

“They don’t have to say anything!” Blackman said “I just think that it’s really kind of cute that they think they have to apologize ”

Blackman said with the “good Lord willing,” he’ll continue to ring the bell for the Salvation Army for many more years to come.

A d i r o n d a c k D a i l y E n t e r p r i s e / L a k e P l a c i d N e w s • C o m m u n i t y R e s o u r c e G u i d e

0