[New] OPINION Christmas Mother elves ride again

LAURA MCFARLAND Managing Editor

Elwood Yates’ sleigh – aka a shiny blue crew cab pickup truck – was packed this year for the annual delivery of the last of the Powhatan Christmas Mother presents.

Continuing a tradition of seven years, I arrived at Christmas Mother headquarters on Dec. 16 ready to ride the roads with Elwood and whoever joined us this year. Dozens of volunteer elves take on this mission every year of delivering the last of the presents to homes that couldn’t pick them up. In our vehicle, the place of navigator for many years was occupied by Roy Harrison, who we lost on Sept. 29, 2021.

Once again Roy’s wife, Mary, wanted to do the ridealong and she brought one of her grandsons, Reilly Dickerson, who joined us the day after getting home from a two-day drive from Kansas State University, where he is a senior. Another special guest this year was the 2022 Christmas Mother herself – Kathy Ware.

For those who aren’t familiar with this annual tradition, it is literally a short foray around the county with a now 93-year-old man with an incredibly rich knowledge of Powhatan history talking about anything that comes up. The conversation always veers from personal to historical and back again and is never boring.

Arriving that morning at headquarters, I learned more people than expected had picked up their presents directly at headquarters, so there were fewer deliveries to make. We were assigned two houses in the western end of Powhatan, which always makes for a pretty drive.

Loading up the truck, we set off down Anderson Highway and immediately turned onto Route 522.

The early part of the conversation surrounded first Reilly describing his college exams and then the future potential development of the property opposite the highway from the post office.

As we turned onto Jefferson Landing Road to find our first stop, Kathy asked a question about a town called Jefferson that used to be at the end of the road. The question was sparked by a friend’s recent Facebook post.

Elwood said his late father, Floyd Yates, moved to Powhatan in 1927 and the town had pretty much died out by then so he didn’t know much about it. If anyone has more insight into the town’s history, feel free to write a letter to the editor to share its history.

It didn’t take long to arrive at the first house, where we were greeted by a senior client who was excited to see us. She and Mary exchanged a few special words because Mary had once taught her children in school. I love the connections you can make in Powhatan that just keep coming back around.

With our first set of packages delivered, we headed off to the second stop on Ridge Road. Before we left, Elwood handed back a photo album he brought along of the 2010 Shad Planking held by the Wakefield Ruritan Club. This was the first I had heard about the event, which was an annual political gathering that took place every April. In addition to the political goings on, the way they cooked the meal was its own tradition, by nailing the bony fish to planks and using fires to cook them.

“Back in the old days, that is where all the political things were settled behind the scenes,” Elwood explained.

In this particular photo album, the focus of most of the photos was Elwood’s father, who was 107