Lauderdale: Bluffton Chicken Ladies were first a Christmas fairy and elf
The problem with Christmas is that it has been stolen by children.
Well, not for two neighbors in Bluffton.
Sallie Collins and Dyane Lee, old enough to know better, were last seen as the Chicken Ladies in the Bluffton Christmas Parade. They were wearing chicken masks, but that's who was pulling the wagons with real chickens.
Sallie and Kent Collins moved from Hilton Head Island to the Huger-Gordon House on the May River about two years ago. That's barely a second in the life of a home built in 1795.
That's when I enjoyed chicken salad and iced tea on the wide porch as boats buzzed by on the river beyond the bluff.
And that's when Dyane Lee came waltzing into the picture.
Sallie writes a blog post every Sunday, and her tale of adults taking back some of the fun of Christmas is published in a new anthology by the Island Writers' Network.
The editors of their fourth anthology, "Hilton Head Island: Time and Tide," and Sallie gave me permission to share it here.
Sallie says every word of it is true. And, curiously, adults at the Tanger Outlet Mall enjoyed their visit more than the children.
Maybe there's hope for the joy of Christmas after all.
INSANITY RULES
By Sallie Collins
Last year, during the holiday season, I get a call from my neighbor. She has a fairy outfit. I've seen it. It's quite elaborate, if not breathtaking. She's eager to wear it on Christmas Eve at the shopping mall. She will distribute peppermint candy canes and bring joy and light to all of those doing their desperate last minute shopping. What did I think of that idea? My chair was close to the ground, so I didn't hurt myself when I fell.
Now, she's nothing if not persistent. A little while later, she calls back. As it turns out she also has an elf outfit. How about if I wear that and go with her in her fairy outfit to the mall on Christmas Eve, and pass out peppermint candy canes? I ask if we've met, and do I really look like that kind of person? She agrees that I'm an unlikely candidate. She hangs up dejectedly; I can tell.
A few moments pass. I ask myself: Just exactly how many more opportunities do you think you have to make a complete fool of yourself? As an elf accompanying a fairy on Christmas Eve at the shopping mall? Passing out peppermint sticks and subjecting yourself to ridicule, if not danger, from crazed shoppers?
As it turns out, the elf suit fit like a dream.
If I could have that much fun, that easily, that simply, again, just for a minute ... well, I'd be there in a heartbeat. My advice to you, unsolicited of course: go for it. Dress outside the box, take peppermint sticks, and see what happens. You'll have fun, too.
NEW ANTHOLOGY
"Hilton Head Island: Time and Tide" is the fourth anthology published by the Island Writers' Network, www.iwn-hhi.org.
The collaboration between the network and the Camera Club of Hilton Head Island includes works by 31 writers and nine photographers, edited by Sansing McPherson, Bill Newby and Elizabeth Robin.
It is available at Coastal Discovery Museum; Top of the Lighthouse Shoppe at Sea Pines Center and Harbour Town; Burke's Main Street Pharmacy; By Hand, Ink at Sea Pines Center; and through Amazon.com.
Follow columnist and senior editor David Lauderdale at twitter.com/ThatsLauderdale and facebook.com/david.lauderdale.16.
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This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 12:35 PM with the headline "Lauderdale: Bluffton Chicken Ladies were first a Christmas fairy and elf."