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By Richard Sayer

meadville tribune

Walking along Chestnut Street the last couple of Christmas seasons, past the local businesses still hanging a shingle out, something was missing.

The gentle jingle of ringing bells on a string, accompanying the crunch of snow under approaching footsteps — and that hearty “Wha-ha-ho-ho-ho!”?

Missing was the energetic, some might say youthful, stride of a bearded elderly man in a red suit who answered to the names of Ray, Mr. Eldridge ... and Santa.

Unlike the iconographic character he portrayed, Santa Ray Eldridge was not frozen in time. Ray had become old and was unable to perform his self-made duties as a roving Santa, stopping at downtown businesses to spread holiday cheer, hand out candy canes and often give away photographs of himself with a prayer on the back to young and old alike.



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Since 2006, Eldridge hadn’t played Santa so much. And on Thursday, he passed away.

Eldridge was a sonar specialist in the Navy in World War II in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. He had many stories about his days on ship looking for submarines including knowing the difference between the ping sounds made from sonar hitting a whale and a submarine. “We would get yelled at if we blew up a whale,” Eldridge told a reporter in 2006 with a laugh. “We had to be very sure what we reported on to the captain.”

The story he told the most was the one that would have a tremendous effect on his elder years.

On the bridge of the USS Loy, a destroyer patrolling the Atlantic Ocean, Eldridge showed up on the bridge sporting a beard. He knew it was against the rules, but he was mad at his captain. He said the captain would make mention of the beard, but fall short of ordering him to shave. He wouldn’t shave and said several days went by and he knew that the captain was growing more and more upset every time he saw Eldridge with the beard.

“One day, after a while of this, I went up on the bridge and the captain says (Eldridge raises his voice with an authoritative tone), ‘Eldridge, go down and shave off that beard, and THAT’S AN ORDER!’ ”

So he shaved — end of story.

Well, not entirely the end. Before he shaved he had a picture taken.

Years later, his wife, Mary, saw the photo and became very intrigued.

“After seeing that picture, she kept bugging me to grow a beard, because she thought I looked handsome,” Eldridge said. He was working as a bus driver for school children by then and he didn’t want to show up disheveled and agreed to start growing once school was out. “I’ll grow one for the summer, but I’ll shave it off in September.” Mary got her wish.

When September rolled around he told her it was coming off.

“She said, ‘Oh dear, please keep it at least until New Year’s.’ Well, it takes two to make a marriage,” Eldridge said, so he didn’t shave. “The longer I let it grow the whiter it became.”

The whiter it became the more like Santa he looked.

Then it began. He started getting requests to play Santa. Eldridge was reluctant.

“I don’t know how to play Santa,” he’d tell them, “its not my role.”

He finally broke down after many, many requests.

The first time he did it was for preschoolers and he rented a suit that Mary had to wash beforehand because it was so dirty and smelly. Mary then made him his own suit. A few years went by and he would only play Santa for friends.

Martha Miller, who was the head of the Chamber of Commerce at the time, approached Eldridge with an idea. Santa (Eldridge) could go around town to area businesses to cheer up people during the holidays.

He refused.

“Santa is for children,” he told her.

Then Miller played a little dirty pool, she asked him to reconsider in front of his wife. Mary had no part of Eldridge’s argument. She and Miller convinced him to do it. Eldridge said he would but only if he could play Santa for the children in between his stops, if he could become a “roving Santa” walking all over town and playing Santa for everyone he encountered.

Once committed to the role, his mind started churning.

“Let’s get a picture of Santa in the Tribune, on the front page, inviting everyone to town for a hometown Christmas,” he told Miller. It was in the day of black and white photos, but they pitched the idea to the paper in color. The publisher at the time, Bob Smith, hesitated. “He sat back in his chair in the office at the Tribune and began to roll his cigar around his mouth with his fingers, then he leaned forward and said — let’s do it!”

Light-up night was born.

After that night in the mid-1980s Eldridge officially started the holiday season in Meadville by lighting the tree in Diamond Park and leading a parade to a location, sometimes the Downtown Mall, sometimes @ the Bank, where he would greet children who would sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.

“There were so many wonderful encounters; sometimes the adults loved Santa as much as the kids. It’s a beautiful life!” said Eldridge as recalled his years of being Santa.

That life came to an end yesterday, more than 20 years after he first donned a Santa suit and began the process of growing a beard he didn’t even, like year after year. He grew it, beginning from scratch every May 1 just to play Santa.

“I do not like a beard, it is messy when eating, especially soup,” he said. “But God wanted me to play Santa, so I did!”



Obituary



Raymond V. Eldridge







Raymond V. Eldridge, 85, formerly of Pine Street, Meadville, passed away on Thursday, May 14, 2009, at Wesbury United Methodist Retirement Community.





Ray was born in New Brunswick, N.J., on Oct. 13, 1923. He was a son of the late John E. Eldridge and Bertha Loewe Eldridge. He married Mary Alice Tote on Jan. 24, 1964. She preceded him in death on Feb. 29, 2005.



He was a graduate of St. Peter’s High School in New Brunswick and the National School of Photography in Silver Spring, Md.



He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy during World War II, having served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, aboard the Naval Destroyer, Escourt USS Loy. He was a professional photographer for the Daily Home News and Will Gainfort Portrait Studio in New Brunswick. He moved to Meadville in l968 to continue a career with the Prudential Insurance Co., from which he retired in l980. He was well known in Meadville for his portrayal of Santa Claus for many years, and for also creating beautiful sand paintings.



Survivors include three sons, Raymond C. Eldridge of Bristol, Fla., William F. Eldridge and his wife, Sandy, of Chambersburg, and Patrick Napolitano and his wife, Leslie, of Oakland, Ark.; a brother, William Eldridge and his wife, Ann, of Somerset, N.J.; three grandchildren, Jason Napolitano, Staci Bearfield and Bobby Wagner; three great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.



In addition to his parents and his wife, he was preceded in death by four brothers, Norris Eldridge, Robert Eldridge, John Eldridge and James Eldridge; and by a sister, Marie Greninger.



Calling hours will be from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. on Sunday at Roofner-Collins Funeral Home, 544 Chestnut St., Meadville. A vigil prayer service will be conducted at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday at the funeral home.



Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Monday at 10 a.m. at St. Agatha Church, 353 Pine St., Meadville, with Father Raymond Gramata as celebrant. Burial will follow in St. Agatha Cemetery with full military honors conducted by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2006.



Memorials can be made to Wesbury United Methodist Retirement Community, 31 N. Park Ave., Meadville, Pa. 16335.