Final sittings
As published on page one of the Dec. 11, 2011 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.
PUTNEY, Vt. -- Three- year-old Lawrence Duncan was shy at first.
It took some coaxing from his grandparents to get him into Santa's red lap, and he still looked a little nervous nestled next to Santa's bushy white beard. Then Santa asked Lawrence his name.
"Law," the young boy said with a sudden smile.
"I'm going to be coming to your house in a couple of weeks," Santa said. "What can I bring you?"
Lawrence paused but didn't respond.
"Would you like a truck, or a race car?" Santa asked.
"A truck," Lawrence replied, almost immediately.
"And what color truck would you like?" Santa asked.
"Red!" Lawrence answered.
"Very good," Santa said, his signature voice warm and rumbling. "A big red truck."
Lawrence is a little too young to realize it, but Santa's Land, a Putney, Vt., roadside amusement park where he sat with Santa on Saturday, is a part of his family's history.
His grandparents, David and Debra Duncan of Hampden, Mass., visited Santa's Land when they were dating, and later came back often with their children.
Saturday was the first time they brought their grandson. It is likely their last visit, too.
The 54-year-old collection of whimsical buildings and pint-sized fairway rides scattered in the woods will close for good after next weekend, according to Leslie and Tim Wells, who have owned the park for eight years.
"We were going great guns until year five, which is when the whole economy went bad," Leslie Wells said.
This year, ticket sales are down 60 percent compared to the couple's most successful year, before the onset of the recession.
"It's the same problem that is facing small businesses everywhere," she said.
But the park is still far from quiet. On Saturday afternoon children ran around, immersed in play, while parents watched with wistful smiles.
"If you look around, I think there's a niche for Santa's Land," Wells said. "This is a charming, sweet, kind of hokey place -- and I think people are looking for that."
The park has a carousel, a choo-choo train, llamas, ostriches and Shetland ponies, but in the play area in front of the "Candy Candy Cupboard" food stand, children were completely absorbed by a slide and a pin-wheel colored spinning platform, a playground staple.
Seven-year-old Terese Levesque of East Haven, Conn., was busy pushing herself in circles on a low gate attached to a pole.
"I went even faster than that when I was your age," mom Stephanie L. Levesque called out.
This was Stephanie Levesque's first visit to the park in 30 years. She didn't recognize anything, she said, until she saw that swinging gate.
"I wanted to bring my kids at least once, and they love it just as much as I did," she said.
Other families had not heard of plans to close the park.
"We were just thinking this could be a tradition," Patrick Alexander of Torrington, Conn., said when he heard the news.
Laura P. Waterman of South Windsor, Conn., widened her eyes when she was told.
"But this has been forever," she said.
Waterman came to the park with her family as a child in the 1970s, and has been bringing her sons -- Jake, now 9, and Matthew, now 7 -- each year since Matthew was six months old.
"Every year we take the same pictures," she said. "In the beginning they thought we were really going to the North Pole -- because it took us two hours to get here."
Years of familiarity hadn't dulled the fun of the park for the boys, who grudgingly stopped playing to talk with a reporter. Matthew said his favorite part is the choo-choo train; Patrick reported he still likes talking with Santa best.
For the past 21 years Santa has been Arthur Bailey of Charlestown, who celebrated his 92nd birthday at the park this summer.
Ask Bailey about the park closing, and he'll let you in on a secret from behind his synthetic beard.
"We're gonna fool them," he said. "We're gonna reorganize and improve and stay in business. That's not the official line, but that's what I say."
Escorting grandson Lawrence from his first visit with Santa, David Duncan speculated that more signs on the highway might help draw new customers, holding out hope that Santa might be right.
"There's nothing like a Christmas wish," he said.
tagged with: Putney, Santa's Land, Santa's Land closing, Vermont
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