"When What to my Wondering Eyes Do Appear..."

It's not unusual to come home and find trucks and workers in the garage and driveway now that construction on the kitchen is well underway.



But one recent afternoon I notice...

...a man cutting bricks in the drive.



Maybe he catches my attention because it's February. In Minnesota. And he's wearing a T-shirt. As though cold weather doesn't bother him at all. Remember that fact. It will mater later.



Or maybe it's just...


...the twinkle in his eye.

He is Lee, the masonry man from CLM, Inc.

And Lee tells me, with pride, that this...

...is a family business.


His dad, in fact, was the 'go to' guy...

in all of the Twin cities during the '50s and '60 for this kind of thing.


In our kitchen, he's rebuilding the area in our old brick wall...

...where a larger second oven, a new warming oven and a replacement microwave will go.

Not surprisingly...

..the original brick work is not up to his standards so there is a fair amount of tinkering and leveling to do. I think he might be quite the craftsman in that way.

I begin to wonder something else about him.

As I have mention before...as a reporter, there is no question I won't ask. But. How do I put this exactly?

Ummm...I stall...asking instead whether I can take a nice photo of him.


"Sure."

"Just let me pull back my shoulders and throw out my chest."

Nice.

Back...

...to work. I still have not come out with my question.

Very unlike me.

But when he moves from the kitchen to the brick wall in the family room and begins to work on the...

...fireplace, well, I just have to come out with it.

"Are you, like, Santa or something. I mean, do people ever ask you if you're Santa?"

"I am Santa. Santa Lee."

He is Santa. At private parties and sometimes at the mall.

I'm so glad I asked. Because I've never been able to have a heart to heart with Santa and this is something I've always wanted to ask:

What's the most poignant thing a child has ever said to you?

Santa Lee thinks about it for a minute.

Then...

... he recalls the time a girl came to see him at a mall. She sat on his lap and went through her list. She was, he figures, about 9 years old. Then as she was about to leave to join her waiting her waiting mother, the girl pulled out a piece of paper. It was folded into a small wad.

It was an apology. A sort of list of another kind. Of all the bad things she'd done. "I'm sorry I've been so bad," the girl said. But Santa knew better. He looked up at the mom and knew where those words had come from.

"She was only 9. A kid doesn't say that."

And so Santa, in his wisdom, told that

9 year old girl that she hadn't been

so bad after all.

"Believe me. I'm Santa.

I know," he assured her.


And then he watched her leave with her mother.

Mother walking off ahead.

Girl trailing behind.






And I don't know about you, but...

...I believe in Santa all over again. ((Santa Lee 612-382-6339))