Last-Minute Shoppers Keep Tradition Alive
Jimmy Henders thought he was in the supermarket.
He did not see the aisles upon aisles of toys lining the shelves or the crush of desperate shoppers fighting to get at them. Blindfolded by his mother with a black bandanna, 6-year-old Jimmy heard the chaos around him but had no idea he was in a Toys R Us in Covina and that his mother was snatching up his Christmas gifts in front of him.
“We’re playing a game,” his mother, Rachel, said. “If he keeps the blindfold on for an hour, he gets pizza for dinner. I’ll bet he can’t keep it on. Can you, Jimmy?”
With Christmas just days away and no baby-sitters around, Rachel Henders had to resort to a rather extraordinary Santa Claus-preservation technique. “If this works, it will be a miracle,” she whispered--out of earshot, of course, of young Jimmy.
In an annual ritual that created pandemonium in the parking lots and chaos in the aisles, shoppers swarmed stores throughout the region Saturday afternoon--the prime of the last shopping weekend before Christmas and hours before Hanukkah began at dusk. Nowhere was the action more intense than at a toy store in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley.
Four young boys got down on their knees at the Covina Toys R Us and fired plastic rifles at passing shoppers. “Bang--I got that man,” one said. A few aisles away, past the Barbies and Game Boys, a father was explaining to his knee-high daughter why she could not have in-line skates. “You have to learn to ride a bike first,” he said.
Elizabeth Fuquay of Azusa was guided by a shopping list--actually a letter to Santa Claus from her 7-year-old son, Aaron.
“I had him write a letter to Santa and then I stole it from him,” she said.
The Barbie aisle was among the busiest, as children pointed out elaborate wardrobes, vehicles, playmates or other accessories that their dolls need. “My Barbie told me she wanted the Ferrari,” Lisa Angler, 8, screamed at her mother, Karen. “We drive a Toyota,” her mother shot back.
Kathy Trerotola of Diamond Bar picked up a Ken doll for her son, Peter, and a Barbie for her daughter, Amy. She passed right by the glass case that housed the deluxe Empress Bride Barbie for $239.99 and the Nutcracker Barbie for $101.99.
Her cart half-full and the afternoon wearing away, Trerotola approached shopping like a military operation, quickly maneuvering through the masses. “I’m going to have to get serious now,” said Trerotola, who was shopping with her mother. “Grandma has to be home by four. Up and down each aisle until the cart is full.”
Although Jimmy Henders was the only blindfolded child along for the ride, other families that brought their kids had similar exercises going on.
Maritza Arriagada was scouting for gifts on one side of the store while her husband, Luis, was watching Andres, 5, and Paula, 10, in the bike section.
“Mom is, let’s say, picking up a few things,” Luis Arriagada tactfully explained. Once the purchasing was complete, a parental switch would occur--because Dad had the credit cards.
Diane Hannegan of Glendora, however, bought a plastic ball and play piano right in front of little Tanner and was not the least bit surreptitious. In fact, she waved the gifts in front of him as she picked them off the shelves.
“He’s 4 months old,” she said, “and he’ll be surprised even if he’s seen them once.”
